First post, be gentle, please.
I'm a Canadian tax resident, running a consulting business, invoicing my (currently ) mostly Canadian clients through my Canadian corp.
Starting to live & (quietly) work remotely > 6 months a year in the Philippines — a non CRS country that seems happy to let me stay for a long time on a tourist visa and aren't interested in my foreign-source income. Long term plan is to split my time 75/25 in Philippines/Canada.
Not ready to renounce my personal tax residency or pay Canada's significant departure tax, and I want to stay (mostly? reasonably?) above-board.
The corp usually nets more than I need to live on.
My goals/areas for exploration are:
However, if the corp pays me less salary/dividends, then I can reduce my personal income tax liability.
I'm wondering about the corp expensing more (or investing in) a (for my benefit) foreign business?
For example, I'd love the corp's pre-tax $ to pay my foreign rent, maybe buy my foreign vehicle, and I'd like to eventually co-invest/build a house with my filipina someday-to-be-wife, and it would be nice to do that with corp capital.
I leave most of my retained earnings in the corp — currently invested in stocks and a bit of crypto — rather than dividend it all out to myself… that leaves me more pre-tax capital to invest in the near term, even though one day the corp will have to pay capital gains and then I'll have to pay income tax as I bring it out of the company later in life).
Canadian tax: small biz corporate tax rate on business activity is relatively low in Canada (~12%), although tax rate on corp investment income/capital gains is quite high (25%++), even higher on foreign investment activity (but then again, if my foreign investment 'loses' money while paying for a nice lifestyle…). As everyone can guess, personal marginal tax rates are pretty damn high once you get up over ~$70-100k/yr.
@backpacker @Jock you guys seem to be the resident experts on the Philippines. Thoughts?
I'm a Canadian tax resident, running a consulting business, invoicing my (currently ) mostly Canadian clients through my Canadian corp.
Starting to live & (quietly) work remotely > 6 months a year in the Philippines — a non CRS country that seems happy to let me stay for a long time on a tourist visa and aren't interested in my foreign-source income. Long term plan is to split my time 75/25 in Philippines/Canada.
Not ready to renounce my personal tax residency or pay Canada's significant departure tax, and I want to stay (mostly? reasonably?) above-board.
The corp usually nets more than I need to live on.
My goals/areas for exploration are:
- minimize Canadian tax (corporate & especially personal) while maximizing my Philippine-based life
- not add significantly to my reporting duties
- if possible, build some wealth 'quietly'
However, if the corp pays me less salary/dividends, then I can reduce my personal income tax liability.
I'm wondering about the corp expensing more (or investing in) a (for my benefit) foreign business?
For example, I'd love the corp's pre-tax $ to pay my foreign rent, maybe buy my foreign vehicle, and I'd like to eventually co-invest/build a house with my filipina someday-to-be-wife, and it would be nice to do that with corp capital.
I leave most of my retained earnings in the corp — currently invested in stocks and a bit of crypto — rather than dividend it all out to myself… that leaves me more pre-tax capital to invest in the near term, even though one day the corp will have to pay capital gains and then I'll have to pay income tax as I bring it out of the company later in life).
Canadian tax: small biz corporate tax rate on business activity is relatively low in Canada (~12%), although tax rate on corp investment income/capital gains is quite high (25%++), even higher on foreign investment activity (but then again, if my foreign investment 'loses' money while paying for a nice lifestyle…). As everyone can guess, personal marginal tax rates are pretty damn high once you get up over ~$70-100k/yr.
@backpacker @Jock you guys seem to be the resident experts on the Philippines. Thoughts?
