Canadian, permanent US resident, living in US, working in CA

[george in washington]

I'm a Canadian citizen, but have US permanent residency (green card).
I've been living in the US for over 10 years.

I prefer to remain in the US and keep my green card.

If my permanent address in Washington state, but I drive into Canada 4 day a week to work at a Canadian facility, what would be some options in terms of legally minimizing taxes?


In the subsequent scenarios, assume the following:
The company that I'm working/consulting for has offices in British Columbia and in California.
I will live in Washington State, but drive into Canada 3-4 days a week to work, but will return to the US each night. I will work 1-2 days a week from the US and thus not be in Canada at all during those 1-2 days.

Scenario 1:
Would I be able to be paid as a US employee (and pay US taxes) through their California office and not pay Canadian taxes even though I'm physically present in Canada 3-4 days a week (each night returning to the US) ?

Scenario 2:
If I become self-employed in the US and send the company an invoice from a US address for consulting work performed in Canada, and I sent that invoice to the US branch of the company, do I have to remit any Canadian taxes because I was physically present in Canada when part of that consulting fee was earned?

[george in washington]

I think I've found the answers to my question on the CRA website:
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/nnrsdnts/cm ... r-eng.html

I have to pay either Canadian federal taxes, or be subject to a witholding tax.

[nelsona]

Well, withholding tax is just the precursor to filing your non-resident tax return.

Yo correctly answer your quaestion:
Scenario 1: No. You will be either an employee of the Cdn firm, or a contarctor of the Cdn firm. Either way your remuneration is taxable in canada.

Scenario 2: Possibly. However it wil come down to how much time you spend in canada. In this context working days will count towards taxability.

IOn either case, the fact that you go home to Washington will make you a non-resident for Cdn tax purposes, so -- at most -- you will pay Cdn tax on your Cdn earings, but nothing else.