Canadian IT Consultant working on US contract

[precisionhealth]

Hello,

I'm a Canadian who lives in Canada and am a partner with a Canadian IT consulting company. We have been sub-contracted by a US consulting company to do work for their client in Virginia.

I'll personally be doing the work and already have my TN taken care of. I'll be spending some time in Virginia (6-8 weeks at the beginning of the contract - home every Thursday night 30-40 days) and then my travel will be roughly once a month until the contract is done. My time in the US will be spent in Hotels and working at the client site. The majority of the time I'll be working from my home office in Canada.

This is the type of activity I've been doing for 12 years and in that time I've always been able to give my client a W-8BEN form and have just filed a Canadian tax return.

Either the company we are sub-contracting with or myself is confused to what is needed in this situation. They have asked me to register my business in Virginia with a UPA138 form and complete a W-9 or alternatively get an ITIN number. This is all new to me as I've never had a client push for this before and the W-8BEN has always been enough.

Of course I find this out today on a Friday afternoon and I'm supposed to be at the client site Monday morning.

So, my question is "What do I need and what does my client need from me?"

Thanks,

John

[nelsona]

Have you had to get a TN previously? have you had to spend as much time in US as you will on this contract?
That may be the difference.

Since you do have a TN, you might want to consider just getting a Social security number. This will save you the trouble of trying to get an ITIN (which is a headache).

The treaty protects you from taxation on any of this income. Unless they withhold from you, this will not change. You would merely file 1040NR to get withhodling back.

I agree that you should not *have to* get ITIN/SSN but their is no ham in doing so.

If you do have to file a W-9, I would ALSO file an 8233 on which you claim exemption from withholding.

[precisionhealth]

Nelson,

Thanks for your response. Yes, I've been on a TN for the past 11+ years but for different clients. Honestly I think this is mainly because my new client contracts out their payroll and can't handle odd balls like me.

I know they are not going to withhold taxes from me.

So that being the case, what would I do exactly? How do I go about getting a SSN and a tax time do I have to do anything on the USA side of things?

Thanks,

John

[nelsona]

As I said, unless they withhold taxes, you should not have to file in US. Since you have NEVER had to file in past, there should be no difference now.

To get SSN, you simply walk into any SSA office and fill out an SS-5.

[nelsona]

I don't know anything about this stste registration you need to fill out.