bigshark

Hello,

Are there any Independent Contractors on this forum that live in Canada, but contract themselves out to UK companies?

I am interested in hearing from personal experience, rather than people posting links to websites etc.

As some of you may know I recently moved to Vancouver and I am currently seeking employment here. However, my old workplace in the UK has very kindly offered me some work in the meantime to tie me over.

They want me to work on a contracting basis for however long I need - who knows, if this worked out really well it could turn into a long term thing!!

I am very new to all this and I know nothing about contracting myself out, self employment etc.

- So, as I still have a bank account in the UK, can I get paid into this account and transfer as of when i need it? or does it need to be paid into my Canadian account?

- What is the best way for receiving the money and maximising my income - I dont want to be charged or taxed twice when I dont need to.

- What about taxes - which country should I pay taxes to??

- Would I be better off setting up my own company?

I am sure there are many loopholes etc. out there , however I want all this to be legit.

Many thanks in advance!!

Aviator

Pay into any bank account you like.
Pay taxes where you are tax resident, which is likely Canada.
Working for a UK company as a contractor is no different to working for a CAN or US company.
Incorporating is likely an unnecessary expense and hassle unless you are earning so much you need to take advantage of small business tax or you need liability protection.

Pizzawheel

Sounds like a fantastic opportunity- enjoy the UK work culture and have the Canadian quality of life.

Get a good accountant with some knowledge of the rest of the world, and you should be fine!

Siouxie

Hello

There was a thread on this topic recently - you will probably find lots of info on it

http://britishexpats.com/forum/canad...estion-844124/

R I C H

A friend of mine contracts to a UK company. It means an unsociable start in the morning and working in isolation from a home office with their UK colleagues leaving for home within a few hours of them starting. Hardly the stuff of UK work culture dreams.

Souvy

What is wrong with that? I've been doing it for a decade, as a contractor and now as an employee. I love it.

I do start early (5-hour difference) but I'm up early anyway. My commute is about 20 feet and I don't have to shave.

R I C H

Oh, nothing wrong with it at all, but rising at 4 for a couple of hours of skype based interaction before colleague head home isn't my idea of Ideal uk work culture.

dbd33

I have phases of working remotely to the UK, I find it easy enough. What's way worse is working with people on the west coast; they want to talk when you should be in the pub. And then there's working with people who are being in India...

Pizzawheel

I was thinking more in terms of days off (vacation) and not having to buy shares to buy a promotion.

Souvy

You have a bigger time difference than me.

We get up early anyway (like 5am). All I need is a coffee, a ciggy and a crap and I'm into work. I'm often in "the office" before some of my UK people are.

I have a VPN and a VoIP phone, so I'm basically in the UK office anyway.

Atlantic Xpat

I work for a Canadian company but our corporate head office is in London so I spend a lot of time on calls to UK. Being on the East Coast of Canada really helps in this regard with the 3.5hr time difference. Being on the West Coast would be considerably less sociable I'd think.

Souvy

Yes it would. Our chairman lives in Vancouver. He schedules management conference calls to suit his watch. OK by me but a bugger for the guys in London. Those calls can last for hours.

Steve_

There aren't any loopholes I'm aware of, this comes up on here all the time, short answer, register as self-employed (i.e. get a business number from the CRA), get a GST/HST number and invoice the UK company. GST/HST is zero-rated for export of services, but you still need to charge 0%.

What currency you want to invoice them in and where you want the bank account to be is a personal preference. But obviously it's simpler from your perspective to have CAD paid into a Canadian account.

You can also incorporate a CCPC but this is overkill for a single client and some provinces require you to be a PR or Canadian citizen in order to do it.

Be sure you've filed a P85 with HMRC and an R105 with your UK bank.

Read the CRA self-employment guide and T2125, as that is the form you have to attach to your tax return.

Steve_

I used to have a client in the UK, it depends on whether you actually need to talk to them or not. In my case it actually helped as they'd all left after a couple of hours so I could do my work unimpeded. Depends on what your job is. I find it's actually more of a pain dealing with people back east because when I want to talk to someone they're out to lunch and then they want to talk to me and I'm eating my lunch.

bigshark

thanks for all the input guys! and I will check out the link, Siouxie. I will also look into those forms, Steve.

luckily for me I dont really need to deal with the clients - my old company is technically my client. they are aware of the time difference, so all communication is done via email. due to the line of work i will be doing, i could just crack on when they send me the info. I just send the results back when it is done. thats the ideal situation anyway!!