I'm wondering what I need to comply with if my business is in Canada and my servers are all located in the United States. Would all my business practices have to comply with Canadian law and everything server releated comply with American law such as content, etc.

Both. Your business operations would need to be in compliance with Canadian law and the material you host would need to be in compliance with U.S. law. What province are you located?

You have to be registered for GST if your income will be over $30,000 cdn per annum. As well you are REQUIRED to charge all Canadian clients GST even if you are billing in USD. You must comply with all applicable Canadian Tax laws as well as all applicable Federal, Provincial and municipal laws.

Your servers content is subject to all applicable laws in the USA AND in Canada. As well, complaints made about your servers content means that they can be subject to reuirements to turn over information about clients to the USA when required to by the FBI.

As well you are also subject to applicable state laws where the servers reside and in the case of those who still use Ev1 you are also subject to Sales Taxes.

The costs of maintaining your servers is a basic business expense and should be tracked as such. You should as well ensure that you do a accurate conversion from USD to CDN dollars of your server co-location/rental costs at the time you are billed. Especially considering the wild ride the Canadian dollar is on right now. This ensures that you receive full benefits of accurate business expense reporting.

Originally posted by iTec Hosts
You have to be registered for GST if your income will be over $30,000 cdn per annum.

Specifically: Income from Canadian clients (since those existing outside of Canada, if any, will not be within GST's jurisdiction)

:)

So....

People purchasing hosting from anywhere outside of Canada are not subject to GST.

People purchasing within Canada (specifically Alberta) will be subject to GST, but not PST or HST like I know some other provinces have.

Any advice on the registration of this business (not incorporation, just registration) would be appreciated. I would need to be able to operate globally. I do not need to register for GST yet as sales wouldn't be that high. I'm wondering if there is a resource where I can see exactly what I need to comply with, I've been to the gouvernments site but that is mostly for the standard business and not an eCommerce business. All help in this matter would be appreciated.

And don't reccomend that I have an accountant, lawyer, etc. I've got them, but I want to know as much as I can before they are contacted.

I thought you folks called them solicitors?!?

You canadians are confusing... which is it, lawyer or solicitor?

i thought it was only us brits who called them solicitors?

You must collest GST & PST inside your own province, GST for any customer in a Canadian Province other than your own.

As mentioned already, you do not need to collect if they are US or other country customers.

If you register your business online you will receive a nice package in the mail that helps outline everything that you can and can not do, along with tax rates and other misc info.

If you are in Alberta, I can help you as far as information on registering a trade name and such is concerned as I am also in Alberta (St. Albert to be exact)

But simply to register a trade name costs only $26.75 (if you use AMA registry services). You can find all the forms you need by visiting http://www3.gov.ab.ca/gs/information/publications/forms_tradename.cfm and you will find all the forms you will need there.

You do not charge PST or HST to clients in other provinces. Only the applicable PST/HST in your province (Alberta does not have PST....so far). So if your clients are in Alberta you only charge GST to them.

Hope this helps you a bit