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Straight answers, written by the people who’d file it.

1,423 plain-English guides on cross-border moves, US and Canadian returns, and small-business money. Each one ends in what to do next, and says when a written Position Check is the smarter first step.

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CROSS-BORDER A Canadian Corporation With a U.S. Shareholder
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Fairlight Accounting · US + Canadian Tax Desks

1,423 guides
Small Business Tax

What an ITIN Application Costs a Canadian: The W-7, the Certifying Acceptance Agent, and the Return That Has to Come With It

September 21, 2026

The IRS charges nothing for an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, but the application is rarely free in practice: it must accompany a US tax return (or qualify for an exception), it requires certified identity documents or a Certifying Acceptance Agent's verification, and it takes months. For most Canadians the cost is the return the ITIN rides on plus the agent's fee. Here is the process, the exceptions, the fee components, and how to avoid paying for it twice.

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Small Business Tax

What Bookkeeping Costs Per Month in 2026, What Sets the Price, and What Catch-Up Work Adds

September 21, 2026

Outsourced bookkeeping is priced monthly, and the monthly fee is built from transaction volume, the number of accounts, the standard of close, and whether payroll and sales tax ride along. The market runs from a low three-figure monthly fee for a simple service business to four figures for a multi-entity operation — with catch-up bookkeeping priced separately by the month of backlog. Here is the pricing model, the tiers, and how to buy the right one.

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Small Business Tax

What Cross-Border Bookkeeping Costs for a Canadian With US Income: Two Currencies, Two Sets of Books, and the Reconciliation Between Them

September 21, 2026

A Canadian with US business income — a consultant with US clients, an owner of a US LLC, a landlord with a Florida rental — needs books that serve two tax systems: Canadian-dollar records for the T1 and T2 with the foreign tax credit computed, and US-dollar records for the 1040-NR, 1120, or Schedule E. The bookkeeping costs more than a single-country business of the same size, for reasons that are structural. Here is what drives the monthly fee, the tiers, and how to keep it down.

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Small Business Tax

What FBAR Filing Costs — With a Preparer, Alone, and Late — and What Skipping It Costs

September 21, 2026

The FBAR is free to file yourself and inexpensive to add to a prepared return; it becomes costly only when it is late, when it is one of many, or when the accounts behind it need reconstruction. The penalty for not filing dwarfs every version of the fee. Here is what the form costs in each situation, what drives the preparer's charge, and how the catch-up and penalty math works.

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Small Business Tax

What It Costs to Have an LLC's Tax Return Prepared Depends Almost Entirely on How the LLC Is Taxed

September 21, 2026

An LLC has no tax return of its own — it files as a sole proprietorship, a partnership, an S corporation, or a C corporation, and the preparation cost tracks that choice more than the size of the business. A single-member LLC on Schedule C costs a fraction of the same business filing Form 1120-S with payroll. Here is what each classification costs to prepare, why, and how the classification decision should account for it.

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Small Business Tax

What Payroll Costs a Small Business — Software, a Service, or Your Accountant — and the Per-Employee Math

September 21, 2026

Payroll is priced as a monthly base fee plus a per-employee charge, and the market has three shapes: self-service software, a full-service provider, or your accountant running it inside a bookkeeping package. For a ten-person business the software alone is a modest annual line; the service or the accountant costs more and removes the filings, deposits, and penalty risk from your desk. Here is the pricing model, the tiers, and what the cheap option leaves you doing.

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Small Business Tax

What Renouncing US Citizenship Costs on the Tax Side: The Final Return, Form 8854, and the Catch-Up That Often Comes First

September 21, 2026

Renunciation has two bills: the State Department's consular fee, and the tax work — a final dual-status return, Form 8854 with its five-year certification and balance sheet, an exit-tax computation for anyone near the covered-expatriate lines, and, for most people who reach this point, the catch-up filings that make the certification possible. Here is what each component costs, why the catch-up dominates, and how the total is built.

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Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

A Canadian Inherits a US IRA or 401(k): The Ten-Year Clock, the Withholding, and Why the Treaty Rate Needs to Be Claimed

September 18, 2026

When an American parent, sibling, or friend leaves a Canadian resident an IRA or 401(k), the beneficiary inherits a US retirement account with US rules — the ten-year distribution requirement for most non-spouse beneficiaries, 30% withholding on distributions to a nonresident alien, and a treaty rate that applies only if claimed and only to periodic payments — and a Canadian tax treatment that follows the money as it comes out. Here is what the beneficiary owns, what each country taxes, and how to take the money out efficiently.

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Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

An American Moving to Canada: The Status Options, and the Tax Obligations That Start on Each

September 18, 2026

A US citizen can visit Canada for six months without paperwork, work or study with a permit, immigrate through the economic or family programs, or — for some — claim citizenship by descent. Each status is an immigration question with a tax shadow: residency for tax purposes starts on facts, not on the permit, and the obligations in both countries begin the day the ties are established. Here is the status map with its tax start dates.

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Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

Are Americans in Canada Taxed Twice? Almost Never, and Here Is the Machinery That Stops It

September 18, 2026

The American living in Canada files two returns on the same income, and the natural fear is paying two taxes. In practice the answer is almost always no: the foreign tax credit, the treaty's allocation of taxing rights, and Canada's higher rates combine so that the US tax on Canadian income is zero for most people. The exceptions — the taxes the credit can't reach — are specific and nameable. Here is how the machinery works and where it doesn't.

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Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

Authorizing Someone to Deal With the CRA and the IRS for You: Form 2848, the CRA Representative Authorization, and What Each Actually Permits

September 18, 2026

A cross-border taxpayer needs someone who can speak to two tax authorities — and the two authorizations work differently: the IRS's Form 2848 grants representation only to credentialed practitioners for listed years and matters, with Form 8821 for information-only access; the CRA's authorization is granted online to anyone with a representative ID, at a chosen level, until cancelled. Here is what each form does, who can be named, and the setup that lets one advisor handle both sides.

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Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

Before You Hire a Cross-Border Accountant: Why a Written Position Review First Saves the Engagement You Don't Need

September 18, 2026

Most cross-border tax engagements start with the wrong question — 'can you do my returns?' — before anyone has established which returns, which years, which elections, and whether the situation is a two-form annual filing or a six-year repair. A short written review of where you actually stand, done before any preparation is engaged, answers those questions once and prices the real work. Here is what a position review covers, what it is not, and how to use it.

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Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

Buying From a Non-Resident Seller in Canada: The 25% You Must Hold Back, the Section 116 Certificate, and the Buyer Who Gets Stuck With the Tax

September 18, 2026

Section 116 is usually described from the seller's side — the clearance certificate a non-resident obtains when selling Canadian real property. From the buyer's side it is a liability: unless the seller produces the certificate, the buyer must withhold 25% of the purchase price and remit it to the CRA, and a buyer who neither withholds nor makes reasonable inquiry owes the seller's tax personally. Here is the buyer's obligation, the inquiry that protects them, and how closings handle it.

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Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

California and Your Retirement Withdrawals After Leaving: The Federal Law That Stops Source-State Pension Tax

September 18, 2026

Former California residents retiring in Canada often assume — or are warned — that California will tax their 401(k) and IRA withdrawals because the accounts were built there. It won't, and it can't: a federal statute prohibits any state from taxing the retirement income of a nonresident, regardless of where the income was earned. Here is the law, what it covers and what it doesn't, the residency break that has to be real for it to apply, and the California-specific items that survive the move.

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Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

Canadian Students on F-1 and OPT: The Exempt-Individual Years, the Year the Day Count Starts, and What Changes on the Return

September 18, 2026

A Canadian on an F-1 student visa, then on Optional Practical Training, is physically in the US for years without being a US tax resident — because student days are exempt from the substantial presence test for five calendar years. The sixth year, or the year the visa changes to H-1B, the count starts, and the return changes from a 1040-NR to a 1040 with worldwide income. Here is the exempt-individual rule, the year residency begins, and the Canadian side that runs alongside.

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Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

Check-the-Box on a Canadian Corporation Before Moving to the US: Why Only a ULC Can, and What the Election Costs and Saves

September 18, 2026

Canadians moving to the US with a corporation ask whether they can elect to have it disregarded for US tax — avoiding the controlled foreign corporation regime entirely. The answer is that an ordinary Canadian corporation cannot: it is a per se corporation. An unlimited liability company can. Here is how the conversion-and-election sequence works, the treaty hybrid rule it triggers, and when the whole exercise is worth it.

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Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

Claiming Canadian Citizenship Through a Parent or Grandparent: What Changes on Your Taxes, and What Doesn't

September 18, 2026

Americans with a Canadian parent — and, under the expanded descent rules, some with a Canadian grandparent — can claim Canadian citizenship by descent and receive a certificate confirming it. The tax consequences are smaller than most expect: Canada taxes residents, not citizens, so a new Canadian citizen living in the US owes Canada nothing new. What does change are the doors the citizenship opens — and the treaty and estate rules that key off citizenship in specific places. Here is the sort.

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Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

Combining CPP and Social Security Work Credits: How the Totalization Agreement Qualifies You, and What It Pays

September 18, 2026

Social Security requires forty quarters of covered work; CPP requires contributions in Canada. A career split between the countries can leave a worker short in one system — and the Canada-US totalization agreement exists to fix exactly that: credits from one country fill the eligibility gap in the other, and the resulting benefit is prorated to the share actually earned there. Here is how the agreement qualifies split-career workers, what it pays, and its coverage rules for people working across the border.

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U.S. Expats

Counting 330 Days: How the Physical Presence Test Works, Which 12 Months to Pick, and the Travel Days That Don't Count

September 18, 2026

The foreign earned income exclusion has two doors, and the physical presence test is the mechanical one: 330 full days in a foreign country during any 12 consecutive months. The arithmetic is unforgiving — a day that touches the United States doesn't count, the 12-month window is yours to choose, and a move year usually qualifies only for a prorated exclusion. Here is how the days are counted, how the window is chosen, and when the test is the wrong door anyway.

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Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

Crypto on a Canadian and a US Return: Disposition Rules, Cost Base Methods, Staking Income, and the Reporting Forms on Each Side

September 18, 2026

Both countries tax cryptocurrency as property, not currency — every sale, swap, or purchase with crypto is a disposition — but they diverge on cost base (Canada averages; the US identifies lots), on the character of gains (Canada's business-versus-capital analysis; the US's capital default), on staking and mining, and on the reporting forms. The cross-border holder computes twice from one transaction history. Here is each system's rules, where they diverge, and the record system that serves both.

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Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

Departure Tax Paid to Canada, Gain Taxed Again in the US? The Treaty Election That Resets Your US Basis

September 18, 2026

Canada taxes your accrued gains when you leave; the US, when you arrive, keeps your historical cost basis — so a later US sale taxes the same pre-departure gain a second time with no Canadian tax to credit that year. The treaty's departure election fixes it: you may elect to treat the property as sold and reacquired for US purposes at the same value Canada used, aligning the two countries' basis. Here is the election, which property it covers, how it's made, and what happens without it.

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Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

ESPP Shares After Moving to Canada: The Discount the US Still Taxes, the Gain Canada Measures From Arrival, and the Sale That Straddles Both

September 18, 2026

Employee stock purchase plan shares bought at a discount during US employment and sold after a move to Canada are taxed by two systems that disagree about what the discount is, when it's taxed, and where the gain starts. The US treats part of the sale as compensation sourced to US workdays; Canada measures the gain from the arrival-date value. Here is how a qualified ESPP is taxed on each side, the arrival basis, and the sale computation.

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Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

FAPI: Why Canada Taxes a Canadian Resident on a US Corporation's Passive Income Before Any Dividend Is Paid

September 18, 2026

Canada's mirror of Subpart F is foreign accrual property income: a Canadian resident who controls a foreign corporation — a US C corporation, or a US LLC Canada sees as a corporation — is taxed in Canada on the corporation's passive income as it is earned, with a deduction for the foreign tax the corporation paid. Active business income is exempt. Here is what FAPI catches, how the foreign-tax deduction works, and the US structures that generate it by accident.

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Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

Form T1134 for a Canadian Who Owns a US Corporation or LLC: The Foreign Affiliate Report, Its Thresholds, and the Dormant-Company Exception

September 18, 2026

Canada's counterpart to Form 5471 is the T1134: an annual information return for every foreign affiliate a Canadian resident owns, including the US LLC that Canada treats as a corporation. It is due ten months after year-end, carries daily penalties, and is widely missed by Canadians whose US structures were set up by US advisors. Here is who files, what it discloses, and the exception that spares small dormant companies.

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