Guides

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

1,407 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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1,407 guides

Small Business Tax

Consulting Business Entity Structure: The LLC, the S Election, and the 'Consulting' Classification That Caps the QBI Deduction

September 25, 2026

A consulting business is the textbook specified service trade — 'consulting' is on the list by name — so the 20% qualified business income deduction phases out above a taxable-income threshold no matter what entity the consultant chooses. The S election still saves payroll tax above a reasonable salary, and for a consultant whose income is entirely personal services the reasonable salary is most of the profit. Here is the entity analysis for a solo consultant, a boutique with a bench, and a multi-partner firm.

Small Business Tax

Courier and Delivery Business Entity: LLC or S Corporation, and the Driver Classification That Decides Whether the Payroll Exists

September 25, 2026

A courier business's entity question is shaped by its vehicle (a large deduction that shrinks the profit the S election works on), its liability (a van in traffic all day), and its drivers — who in this industry are paid on 1099s by default and are employees in fact more often than not. Here is the entity analysis for a solo courier, a small delivery company, and a contract carrier, with the classification question that decides whether the S election's payroll already exists.

Small Business Tax

Dog Training Business Entity Structure: The LLC for the Bite, the S Election for the Profit, and the 'Not a Specified Service' Answer

September 25, 2026

A dog training business handles other people's animals, in the trainer's space or the client's home, and sometimes boards them overnight — which makes the liability question decisive and the LLC the floor. The tax question is the standard S election arithmetic on a working trainer's profit, with a clean answer on classification: dog training is instruction, not a specified service trade, so the qualified business income deduction applies at every income level. Here is the entity analysis for a solo trainer, a facility with staff, and a board-and-train operation.

Small Business Tax

Cleaning Business Entity Structure: The LLC, the S Election, and the Crew Payroll That Changes the Arithmetic

September 23, 2026

A cleaning business runs on labor, and the entity decision follows the labor: a solo cleaner is a Schedule C; a company with crews already runs a payroll, which makes the S corporation election cheap to add once the owner's profit clears a working supervisor's salary. Liability — a cleaner in a customer's home, a slip in a lobby — makes the LLC the floor regardless. Here is the analysis for a solo cleaner, a residential company, and a commercial contractor, with the classification question that decides whether the payroll exists.

Small Business Tax

Countertop Fabrication Business Entity: S Corporation or Schedule C When the CNC Cost More Than the Year Made

September 23, 2026

A countertop fabrication shop's entity decision is shaped by three facts: it runs a payroll (fabricators, installers, templaters), which makes the S election cheap to add; its equipment purchases are large enough to erase a year's taxable profit, which makes the election's timing matter; and its liability — a slab that cracks after install, a shop injury, a silica claim — makes the LLC or corporation non-negotiable. Here is the analysis for a shop's opening years, its profitable years, and the owner-fabricator's reasonable salary.

Small Business Tax

Car Wash Entity Structure: LLC, S Corporation, or Partnership When Depreciation Erases the Early Profit

September 22, 2026

A car wash's entity question is unusual because the first years show little or no taxable profit — bonus depreciation on a fifteen-year building and five-year equipment wipes it out — so the S corporation's payroll-tax saving has nothing to work on until the write-offs end. Meanwhile, investor-owners who don't work the wash face the passive activity rules, and multi-owner washes are partnerships with allocation questions. Here is the entity analysis across the wash's life, from the loss years to the profit years to the sale.

Small Business Tax

Carpet Cleaning Business Entity Structure: The LLC, the S Election, and the Reasonable Salary for a Working Owner-Technician

September 22, 2026

A carpet cleaner's entity decision is the standard S-corporation question with two trade-specific features: the owner usually works the truck-mount as well as running the business, which sets a reasonable salary near what a lead technician earns; and the technicians' classification — employees or not — determines whether the payroll system the S election requires already exists. Here is the analysis for a one-van operator, a two-van company with staff, and the profit bands where each structure wins.

Small Business Tax

Chiropractic Practice Entity Structure: The Professional Corporation Requirement, the S Election, and the Specified-Service Phase-Out

September 22, 2026

A chiropractic practice's entity choice starts with a constraint most businesses don't have: in many states, a licensed health professional must practice through a professional corporation or professional LLC owned only by licensees. On top of that sits the S election — usually right for a profitable practice — and the specified-service QBI phase-out that makes the practice's taxable income the number to manage. Here is the entity analysis for a solo practitioner, a multi-doctor practice, and the associate-to-partner transition.

Small Business Tax

Concrete and Masonry Business Entity: LLC or S Corporation for a Crew-Based Contractor With a Winter Shutdown

September 22, 2026

A concrete contractor with a crew already runs a payroll — which makes the S corporation election cheaper to add than it is for a solo tradesperson — and carries liability exposure that makes the LLC non-negotiable regardless. The complications are the winter shutdown (an owner's salary through months with no pours) and the equipment write-offs that swing profit year to year. Here is the entity analysis for a crew-based concrete or masonry business, the reasonable salary for a working owner-foreman, and the timing that fits the season.

Small Business Tax

Daycare Center Entity and the Employer Childcare Credit: The LLC, the S Election, and the Credit Most Centers Never Claim

September 22, 2026

A daycare center is a staff-heavy, liability-exposed business, which settles the entity question early: an LLC (or corporation) for the liability, and an S election once the owner's profit clears a director's reasonable salary. The center-specific item is the employer-provided childcare credit — available to the center for its own staff's children, and to the employers the center contracts with — which the 2025 legislation made substantially larger. Here is the entity analysis, the licensing interaction, and the credit's mechanics.

Small Business Tax

Entity Structure for a Home Daycare: Why Most Stay Sole Proprietors, and When the LLC or the S Election Makes Sense

September 22, 2026

Most home daycare providers are sole proprietors, and for good reasons: the business-use-of-home deduction flows most simply through Schedule C, the family-member payroll exemptions require it, and profit rarely reaches the level where the S election's payroll-tax saving beats its costs. The LLC adds liability protection without changing the tax picture; the S election changes the home deduction's mechanics and rarely pays. Here is the analysis, and the profit level where it flips.

Small Business Tax

Deducting What You Spent Before the Business Opened: The Start-Up Cost Rules, the Organizational Cost Rules, and the First-Year Election

September 21, 2026

Money spent before a business opens — market research, travel to find a location, training, professional fees, the state filing to form the LLC — is not deductible as an ordinary business expense, because there was no business yet. The tax code lets you deduct a first slice in the year the business begins and amortize the rest over fifteen years, and it treats the costs of forming the entity under a parallel rule. Here is what qualifies, what doesn't, how the election works, and the timing traps.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

Owning US S-Corporation or Partnership Interests From Canada: Flow-Through to the IRS, a Corporation or Partnership to the CRA

September 18, 2026

A Canadian resident holding an interest in a US S corporation or partnership faces a characterization gap: the US taxes the income as it flows through to the owner; Canada may see a corporation (the S corporation) or a partnership (the LLC or LP) and tax on its own timing and character. Add the S corporation eligibility rule that bars nonresident aliens, and the Canadian owner's position is more fragile than it looks. Here is how each structure is taxed on both sides.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

Structuring an E-2 Business as a Canadian: Why the LLC Fails Twice and the C Corporation Usually Wins

September 18, 2026

The E-2 treaty investor visa requires a real US business you own and direct — and the entity you form for it decides your tax life on both sides of the border. Immigration lawyers default to the LLC; for a Canadian who remains connected to Canada, that default creates a corporation-to-Canada mismatch and a self-employment tax bill. Here is how the LLC and C corporation compare for the E-2 investor, and the residency question that decides between them.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

How Americans Should Hold Canadian Real Estate: Personal Title Wins, the LLC Fails Twice, and the Narrow Cases for Anything Else

September 15, 2026

The American buying Canadian property inherits the mirror of every Canadian-buying-US structuring question — and the answer mirrors too: personal title beats the vehicles. The US LLC that protects at home misclassifies in Canada; trusts import two countries' reporting; corporations stack taxes. Here is the holding-structure decision from the American side, case by case.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

The Best US Entity for a Canadian Owner: Why the LLC Everyone Recommends Is the One Structure to Avoid

September 14, 2026

Every US advisor's default — the LLC — is the worst wrapper a Canadian can own, because Canada sees a corporation where the US sees a flow-through and the mismatch double-taxes distributions. The structures that actually work for Canadians are the limited partnership, the US C corporation, and sometimes nothing at all. Here is the entity menu re-ranked for a Canadian passport.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

Moving to Canada With a US LLC: Why the Structure That Worked at Home Double-Taxes You Abroad

September 14, 2026

The LLC is the default US small-business wrapper — and one of the worst entities to bring to Canada. Canada sees a corporation where the US sees a flow-through, so the same profit is taxed personally in the US now and as a corporate distribution in Canada later, with credits that refuse to line up. Here is the mismatch, the treaty patch, and the restructuring options.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

Buying in Florida: Should a Canadian Hold It Personally, in an LLC, in a Canadian Company, or in a Trust? A Decision Table

September 7, 2026

The four ways a Canadian can hold Florida property, scored on income tax, estate tax, probate, liability, personal use, and compliance cost. Personal ownership in a revocable trust wins for most; the LLC loses for a Canadian resident; the Canadian company and the irrevocable trust are for specific estate tax problems.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

A Canadian Buying a US Vacation Rental: Personally, in an LLC, in a Canadian Corporation, or in a Trust?

September 7, 2026

The holding structure for a Canadian's US vacation rental decides the income tax, the estate tax, the probate, and the cost of getting out. Here are the four options compared on each dimension, and why personal ownership (or a revocable trust) wins for most Canadians and an LLC almost never does.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

Incorporating Across the Border: Canadian Corporation, US C Corporation, LLC, or ULC, and Why the Owner's Residence Decides

September 7, 2026

Where to incorporate when you live in one country and do business in both. Canadian corporation, US LLC, US C corporation, and the unlimited liability company, and the cross-border tax traps that follow each choice. The owner's residence, not the customers' location, is the deciding factor.

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