International business expansion typically entails recruiting personnel in foreign countries or assigning Canadian employees to work in countries other than Canada or the United States. This outsourcing practice can provide various issues for human resource departments, particularly when organizations are expanding globally for the first time.

One of the most significant practical issues is paying employees situated overseas while remaining compliant with tax and social security withholding.

Employing International Freelancers

Even the tiniest businesses have to deal with international partners for a wide range of transactions in this era of free trade and globalization, which may be incredibly frustrating. If you're a small business owner in Canada, you may be considering employing a foreign contractor to perform some of your company's services. As a result, you'll want to be aware of the various tax implications.

Service Rendering

Will the foreign contractor's services be performed in Canada or abroad? Even if the recipient of the services is a Canadian, a non-resident of Canada who delivers services outside of Canada generally incurs no tax liability.

Assume you hire a French lawyer to represent you in French courts in order to recover money from a buyer who refuses to pay you. Because the French lawyer is not a Canadian resident and the services are provided in France, you are not obligated to withhold money at the source.

Assume, however, that the same French lawyer flies to Canada and offers you services on Canadian soil, such as serving as an expert witness in a Canadian court case. The response may be different in that scenario, and you may be forced to withhold a portion of the money.

Withholding Taxes

Non-Canadian citizens pay a different rate of tax than Canadian citizens. Residents of Canada are required to file an annual income tax return. They declare all of their international income and calculate the tax they are responsible for paying. It is up to the Canadian taxpayer to pay or receive a refund depending on whether money was withheld at source, such as by an employer, and the difference is either paid or refunded.

Withholding by the Canadian payer represents the non-ultimate resident's tax, which may be offset by a foreign tax credit in the non-country resident's residence.

If a non-Canadian performs a service in Canada and receives payment from a Canadian, the payer must withhold and send 15 percent of the gross payment. You may be held accountable for the non-resident’s taxes if you fail to withhold the proper amount as a Canadian taxpayer.

Exemptions from the Treaty

There are numerous exceptions to the above norm in Canada's tax treaties. On the other hand, the exemptions are not granted automatically; you must make a formal request through the CRA. Foreign contractors who live in a nation with which Canada has a tax treaty and meet one of the following conditions can apply for a Section 105 waiver, the most commonly granted exemption to small businesses.

●      Those who make less than $5,000 in the current fiscal year are considered non-residents.

●      The non-resident worker is only in Canada for a total of fewer than 180 days as part of their present contract. Thus their stay is not ongoing.

●      Non-resident person's presence in Canada is recurrent, but their total time here is less than 240 days throughout a given period, and under the terms of this contract, they are here for fewer than 180 days in total.

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- The Capex Team