Repatriation planning — how much of this can I do myself?
Some of it, yes — and we will say so on the call if that is the honest answer. The parts that are worth paying for are the ones where a missed election, a missed deadline or an unverified threshold costs more than the fee: each channel has its own withholding rate, deductibility and substance requirement, and surplus rules decide how much arrives untaxed.
What if I have already filed and got it wrong?
That is a common starting point. We re-derive the position, identify whether an amendment or a disclosure route is the right vehicle, and tell you which one preserves the relief that is still available. The order matters more than the speed.
How long will it take?
It depends on the documents rather than on us. Once the pack is complete most filings turn around inside a fortnight; anything that needs a certificate from a tax authority runs on that authority's timetable, which we tell you at the start rather than at the end.
How do I bring profits from my overseas company home?
Through one or more of four channels, and the work is choosing the combination rather than picking one. A dividend carries withholding at source and a particular treatment on arrival. Interest is deductible in the paying company, which a dividend generally is not, and carries its own withholding. A service or management fee is deductible too, but only where the service is genuinely provided and properly priced. A repayment of capital returns money that was already taxed and is often the least costly of the four, up to the amount available. The right answer depends on what the entities actually do, not on what the agreements say.
Is a management fee better than a dividend for taking money out?
It can be, because a fee reduces the taxable profit of the paying company while a dividend is paid out of profit already taxed. But a fee has to survive two tests that a dividend does not. Something must actually have been supplied, by people who exist and can be identified. And the amount must be defensible as what an unconnected party would have paid for it. A fee that fails either test tends to be denied a deduction in one country while remaining taxable in the other, which is worse than the dividend it replaced. Where genuine services are provided, document them before charging for them.
Can I repay a shareholder loan instead of paying a dividend?
Often, and it is regularly the least costly route, but only up to what was genuinely lent or contributed. A repayment of capital, or of a real loan, returns money that has already been taxed, so it generally arrives without a further charge. The difficulty is evidential. Many closely held groups have moved money back and forth for years without documenting which transfers were loans, which were capital and which were something else. Before relying on this channel, reconstruct what the balance actually represents and support it. An amount described as a loan repayment that cannot be traced to a loan is treated as a distribution.
Why do my intercompany agreements need to match what we do?
Because the agreement is evidence, not the transaction. Where a fee, a royalty or an interest charge is challenged, the question asked is what the entities actually did, and the paperwork is then tested against it. Agreements drafted at set-up and never revisited tend to describe a business that has since changed: services moved to another entity, staff who left, functions now performed by the parent. That mismatch is what turns a routine deduction into a dispute. The inexpensive fix is to review the agreements against the current operating reality before the next charge is raised, and amend them where they no longer describe it.
We have cash building up in a foreign subsidiary, what now?
Start with why it is there, because that usually indicates whether it can leave easily. Cash accumulates for good reasons, such as local working capital or exchange controls, and for poor ones, such as nobody having decided. The analysis looks at what the accumulated profit consists of, which parts can come home without a further charge, what the withholding cost is on each route, and whether local rules restrict distributions until certain reserves or filings are in place. It also asks what the money is needed for. Repatriating cash that has to go straight back as a loan is an expensive way to move it twice.
Should we bring all the profits home in one distribution?
Rarely. A single large distribution tends to concentrate the withholding, use up the available credit in one year, and push the recipient into a higher band, while the same amount spread over several years can use each year's capacity. Sequencing also lets each channel be used up to its natural limit: repayable capital first, genuine charges as they are incurred, dividends for the balance. Against that, sequencing needs the entities to stay in place and the rules to stay as they are, and neither of those is certain. A plan should therefore say what triggers a review, not just what happens in the first year.
How is a US LLC taxed for a Canadian owner?
This is the classic hybrid mismatch. The United States generally treats a single-member LLC as transparent and taxes the member on the profit as it arises. Canada treats the LLC as a corporation and taxes the member on distributions. So the two countries tax different amounts in different years, and the foreign tax credit — which needs the same income taxed by both in the same year — often cannot bridge it. The treaty relief for hybrids is narrow. See why a Canadian should rarely own an LLC.
How is a GILTI inclusion calculated, in outline?
Start at the foreign company: its tested income or loss for the year, computed under US principles. Aggregate those across all your controlled foreign corporations, net the losses, then reduce by a return on qualifying tangible business assets less certain interest expense. What remains is your inclusion, brought into your own return, where the deduction and any credit are applied. Every one of those percentages has been amended, so the mechanism is stable and the arithmetic is year-specific. See the GILTI inclusion and Form 8992.
