CPP/EI vs FICA for cross-border staff — do I need an adviser, or can I do it alone?
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: the totalization agreement determines which system applies, and the self-employed are treated differently from employees.
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.
Does a seconded employee pay into both CPP and FICA?
Without relief, a cross-border assignment can require contributions to Canada's public pension and employment insurance system and to the equivalent U.S. social security system at the same time, since each system generally looks only at where work is performed or where the employer is based. A totalization agreement between the two countries can prevent this double contribution in qualifying cases, but it has to be applied for rather than assumed. We check eligibility before the assignment starts.
What does a totalization agreement do for cross-border employees?
A totalization agreement between two countries generally lets an employee stay in their home country's social security system for a limited assignment abroad, rather than contributing to both systems, and it also allows contribution history in each country to count toward eligibility for benefits in the other. The relief is not automatic; it requires a certificate of coverage confirming the employee is exempt in the host country. We handle that application as part of an assignment's payroll setup.
Which country's payroll deductions apply to a transferred employee?
Which system applies depends on the type of deduction: income tax withholding generally follows where the work is physically performed, while social security contributions can follow the home country instead if a totalization agreement and its coverage certificate are in place. Treating the two as if they always follow the same rule is a common source of payroll error. We map each deduction type separately against the applicable agreement before payroll is set up for the assignment.
What happens if I have not filed for several years?
Missed years are handled as one package, not one at a time, because the route chosen for the first year determines the relief available for the rest. Each country has a disclosure or relief programme with its own conditions, and entering the right one — before the authority contacts you — is usually what keeps penalties down. Filing quietly outside a programme forfeits that protection. See catching up on missed returns.
Is "fund transfer pricing" the same thing as transfer pricing?
No — and if you came here to calculate FTP, this is not it. Fund transfer pricing is a bank's internal allocation of funding costs and benefits between its own business units, a treasury and asset-liability management discipline used to measure branch or product profitability. Tax transfer pricing is about prices between legally separate related parties across borders, and about which country taxes the resulting profit. The words overlap; the fields do not. See our transfer pricing work.
