Status: Dual citizen, US resident, commute to and employed in Canada (as an employee) by a large Canadian corp. Non resident in Canada for tax purposes
Question: When filing a 1040, can this foreign CDN income be reported as self employment income?
Apparently, there are several cross border employees in this same situation ( at the same corp.) that are reporting their CDN income as self employment income and taking advantage of better retirement of better retirement savings products.
Thanks in advance
Reporting cross border income as self employment income
Moderator: Mark T Serbinski CA CPA
Re: Reporting cross border income as self employment income
My initial reaction was to laugh and say "No."
My think-it-through response: Is Canada issuing you a T4A of some sort, vs. a T4? Pretty hard to turn Canadian employment income (T4) into contractor income (T4A). Plus, your T4 will have CPP/EI withholdings on it etc, which aren't present with legit Canadian self-employed revenues
Then you have the Canadian tax return filing for your Canadian-source income: You're going to file the Canadian return as "employment" income, but then file your 1040 as self-employed?
Pretty tough to find a filing position where this approach is reasonable.
My think-it-through response: Is Canada issuing you a T4A of some sort, vs. a T4? Pretty hard to turn Canadian employment income (T4) into contractor income (T4A). Plus, your T4 will have CPP/EI withholdings on it etc, which aren't present with legit Canadian self-employed revenues
Then you have the Canadian tax return filing for your Canadian-source income: You're going to file the Canadian return as "employment" income, but then file your 1040 as self-employed?
Pretty tough to find a filing position where this approach is reasonable.