So I thought I'd share my experience in setting up a company in Canada and if others are interested in this sort of set up, hope this helps! Essentially I recently set up a new Ltd. company in Ontario, Canada. I am an EU resident, but dual citizen with Canada. (however this Canadian citizenship should not have much influence as all foreign nationals should be able to do the same, if they wish)
Opening a Ltd. company is pretty simple and quick. It can be done online and if you are the sole shareholder/director, you don't really need to go through an accountant. I got banking sorted with RBC Royal Bank - a mainstream bank and not some EMI. I got both USD and CAD accounts as the purpose of my business is mainly for doing some import/export commodity trading (physical, not derivatives). I may or may not only focus on Canada specific trade, but I am likely to do a fair bit of third country trading as well (i.e. largely between Africa, India and the EU, but via my Canadian company).
You can set up an account online at ontario.ca and incorporate in like 10 minutes. Cost is around 300 CAD for incorporation and around 40 CAD for Business name registration
You don't need to be a Canadian citizen/resident to set up a company in some provinces in Canada (this is the case for Ontario, Quebec, BC and Alberta I think. The others might have some residency requirements)
Basic steps:
1. You should get set up with a virtual mailbox service i.e. Anytime Mailbox, iPostal1 etc. This may or may not need to be your first step (as you need to have company documents along with your ID), but if you don't have a physical address, you will need one and these are the cheapest options that I found. You will need this address during the incorporation and bank account opening process.
2. If you want a named company, then you need to reserve a name in advance. This reservation is done through private companies and the prices can vary a lot. The cheapest I found was for like 40 CAD at IncorpDirect.ca. This report is called a NUANS report
3. In less than an hour you will get an email with your reservation number and NUANS report.
4. You should then create a MyOntario account here https://signin.ontario.ca and from there you will need to get set up with the Ontario Business Registry. Set up is quick and easy, but I admit the interface isn't always user friendly. Once you get the hang of it, it's pretty straight forward to use.
5. Once in the Ontario Business Registry you can fill out the online submission along with your NUANS number and your articles and certificate of incorporation will be issued pretty much immediately after payment.
In terms of Privacy, in Ontario, your directorship, while public, is not accessible over the Internet. Only other professional services firms can access this info. So it's semi private. In Quebec it's different as they need a copy of your ID during incorporation and the Beneficial Ownership data is publicly accessible as far as I know.
This aside, once your incorporation is done, you can open a bank account. I happen to be physically in Canada this week and so I did it person - takes about 1hour and some light KYC. I spoke with the banker and she said there are no nationality/residency restrictions beyond belonging to sanctioned countries. While they prefer opening accounts in person, they are able to open remotely over Zoom and through some sort of online ID verification system. This is with RBC. My experience with my previous Ontario Limited Partnership was with National Bank and this was less easy.
I do plan on doing some trade with India and in Canada there are branches of major Indian banks that can facilitate trade finance solutions for India trade. I can open an account with them, while I am here and this is the plan. This is something that I'm keen to develop and I find in Europe this is less easy to do when you are a small-sized trader. In Canada, it seems a bit easier.
Next steps would be to get a Canadian Import/Export account number and for this I would need a GST/HST number. Both can be applied for online at the Canada.ca portal and also here foreign nationals/residents can apply. However if you are not doing Import/Export, you would not need to go through all this. GST/HST isn't manadatory unless you exceed a certain amount of revenue. I think (but not sure) that this is Canadian revenue only but not International one. Don't quote me on that part!
I am sourcing some commodities (mainly waste by-products, but also edible oils) from Canada, hence why I set up here. My next steps will be to register this Canadian company to have a branch office in the EU (most likely Belgium as I will be working with a lot of Belgian logistic partners, the port of Antwerp etc.). This EU Branch should normally get my an EORI/VAT number and hopefully a bank account. I admit banking in the EU, while better than the Canadian system, is more difficult to get set up with, beyond EMI's. But given the nature of my business, I need a 'real' bank, so potentially I may encounter some challenges.
As for Canadian/EU taxes - I don't know how this will work out just yet. I will learn as I go along I guess. In my case I need some presence in Canada due to some suppliers and buyers being here. I estimate my accounting costs to be around 500 CAD per year, at least this first year when my transactions are unlikely to be complicated.
Overall I expect my Canadian running costs to be around 1000 CAD per year, including Accounting. This figure does not include the registration fees as these are just on-off charges. Given that I need a real bank, not an EMI and need some sort of local corporate presence, this is probably the best deal that I can get. If I operate an LLC in the US as a non resident, I may save on taxes, but I won't be able to get decent banking for example. So everything has a trade off I guess. Going offshore to a more tax efficient place would not be very practical neither given my requirements.
So for those who do wish to consider Canada, this is more or less how I got the ball rolling and I hope this helps others, should they have a similar interest in setting up like this.
All the best!
Opening a Ltd. company is pretty simple and quick. It can be done online and if you are the sole shareholder/director, you don't really need to go through an accountant. I got banking sorted with RBC Royal Bank - a mainstream bank and not some EMI. I got both USD and CAD accounts as the purpose of my business is mainly for doing some import/export commodity trading (physical, not derivatives). I may or may not only focus on Canada specific trade, but I am likely to do a fair bit of third country trading as well (i.e. largely between Africa, India and the EU, but via my Canadian company).
You can set up an account online at ontario.ca and incorporate in like 10 minutes. Cost is around 300 CAD for incorporation and around 40 CAD for Business name registration
You don't need to be a Canadian citizen/resident to set up a company in some provinces in Canada (this is the case for Ontario, Quebec, BC and Alberta I think. The others might have some residency requirements)
Basic steps:
1. You should get set up with a virtual mailbox service i.e. Anytime Mailbox, iPostal1 etc. This may or may not need to be your first step (as you need to have company documents along with your ID), but if you don't have a physical address, you will need one and these are the cheapest options that I found. You will need this address during the incorporation and bank account opening process.
2. If you want a named company, then you need to reserve a name in advance. This reservation is done through private companies and the prices can vary a lot. The cheapest I found was for like 40 CAD at IncorpDirect.ca. This report is called a NUANS report
3. In less than an hour you will get an email with your reservation number and NUANS report.
4. You should then create a MyOntario account here https://signin.ontario.ca and from there you will need to get set up with the Ontario Business Registry. Set up is quick and easy, but I admit the interface isn't always user friendly. Once you get the hang of it, it's pretty straight forward to use.
5. Once in the Ontario Business Registry you can fill out the online submission along with your NUANS number and your articles and certificate of incorporation will be issued pretty much immediately after payment.
In terms of Privacy, in Ontario, your directorship, while public, is not accessible over the Internet. Only other professional services firms can access this info. So it's semi private. In Quebec it's different as they need a copy of your ID during incorporation and the Beneficial Ownership data is publicly accessible as far as I know.
This aside, once your incorporation is done, you can open a bank account. I happen to be physically in Canada this week and so I did it person - takes about 1hour and some light KYC. I spoke with the banker and she said there are no nationality/residency restrictions beyond belonging to sanctioned countries. While they prefer opening accounts in person, they are able to open remotely over Zoom and through some sort of online ID verification system. This is with RBC. My experience with my previous Ontario Limited Partnership was with National Bank and this was less easy.
I do plan on doing some trade with India and in Canada there are branches of major Indian banks that can facilitate trade finance solutions for India trade. I can open an account with them, while I am here and this is the plan. This is something that I'm keen to develop and I find in Europe this is less easy to do when you are a small-sized trader. In Canada, it seems a bit easier.
Next steps would be to get a Canadian Import/Export account number and for this I would need a GST/HST number. Both can be applied for online at the Canada.ca portal and also here foreign nationals/residents can apply. However if you are not doing Import/Export, you would not need to go through all this. GST/HST isn't manadatory unless you exceed a certain amount of revenue. I think (but not sure) that this is Canadian revenue only but not International one. Don't quote me on that part!
I am sourcing some commodities (mainly waste by-products, but also edible oils) from Canada, hence why I set up here. My next steps will be to register this Canadian company to have a branch office in the EU (most likely Belgium as I will be working with a lot of Belgian logistic partners, the port of Antwerp etc.). This EU Branch should normally get my an EORI/VAT number and hopefully a bank account. I admit banking in the EU, while better than the Canadian system, is more difficult to get set up with, beyond EMI's. But given the nature of my business, I need a 'real' bank, so potentially I may encounter some challenges.
As for Canadian/EU taxes - I don't know how this will work out just yet. I will learn as I go along I guess. In my case I need some presence in Canada due to some suppliers and buyers being here. I estimate my accounting costs to be around 500 CAD per year, at least this first year when my transactions are unlikely to be complicated.
Overall I expect my Canadian running costs to be around 1000 CAD per year, including Accounting. This figure does not include the registration fees as these are just on-off charges. Given that I need a real bank, not an EMI and need some sort of local corporate presence, this is probably the best deal that I can get. If I operate an LLC in the US as a non resident, I may save on taxes, but I won't be able to get decent banking for example. So everything has a trade off I guess. Going offshore to a more tax efficient place would not be very practical neither given my requirements.
So for those who do wish to consider Canada, this is more or less how I got the ball rolling and I hope this helps others, should they have a similar interest in setting up like this.
All the best!
