Posts

Canada-United States flags

What USMCA means for Canadian businesses doing cross-border trade with the U.S.

  U.S. President Donald Trump has gotten his way. The new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) was put into effect as of July 1—the earliest date possible following the agreement’s ratification in April. Modernizing the North American Free Trade Agreement (the USMCA’s predecessor) was a key part of Trump’s campaign in 2016 and the pressure was on […]

Royal infant’s U.S. tax issues a reminder to Canadian entrepreneurs to think twice before becoming Americans

For so many people around the globe, U.S. citizenship is a highly vaunted status symbol, even a ticket to success. While the validity of that perception is debatable, many businesspeople, including Canadian entrepreneurs, do glean some advantages when holding a U.S. passport. Unfettered access to the world’s largest marketplace would, of course, be the main […]

How trade wars can be the key to business diversification and growth

There’s nothing like an impending crisis to force Canadian entrepreneurs to become more creative in their business dealings, explore new markets and generally seek new ways to become even more innovative. Our slowly-escalating trade conflict with the United States is just such a moment in time when many business owners will begin to re-think their […]

You own a small business in Ontario—Here’s how to survive a trade war

When U.S. President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum in June, executives in those industries recoiled at the potential fallout, and warned of pending job and revenue losses. Economists promptly cautioned that the ripple effect wouldn’t be contained to those two sectors. Indeed, entire supply chains could face widespread disruption as the […]

CRA changes treatment of U.S. LLPs, LLLPs

Canadian investors received some bad news from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) recently. Ottawa announced that it is changing the treatment of U.S. limited liability partnerships (LLPs) and limited liability limited partnerships (LLLPs). Moving forward subject to transitional relief for structures currently in place, LLPs and LLLPs will be taxed as corporations in Canada. The […]

Major changes to U.S. rules on sales of U.S. real estate property

On December 18, 2015, the U.S. Congress passed the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015 (“PATH Act”). President Obama has since signed the PATH Act so it is now enacted law. The PATH Act contains significant reform measures for the rules governing Real Estate Investment Trusts (“REITs”) and non-U.S. investors in U.S. real […]