General Liability Insurance for Canadian Corporation in US

[fern1400]

I didn't see a specific thread for this.

My company has allowed me to go corp-to-corp via my Canadian Corporation through my TN Visa. I've got both a Ontario Corp and a US C-Corp registered in Delaware. My original intention was to use the US Corp as all of my business will be conducted in New York City / New Jersey.

Have any of you been able to attain General Liability Insurance ($1 MM USD) in the US for your Canadian Corporation? If so, do you have any brokers/insurance companies you can point me to? Also, any estimates of cost would be helpful, I am the only employee of the corporation.

Thanks,

Nish

[Steven]

This is a thread on it: management-consultant-llc-creation-vt6534.html?hilit=corporation#p25481

Basically because you have control of the corporations involved, you may be considered self-employed which isn't permitted in TN-1.

Getting hold of liability insurance for a foreign corporation is difficult, this is one of the main reasons (if not the main reason) for setting up a separate company in the country of operation. I'm sure some insurance company somewhere probably does it but given that you've got to have a US payroll to pay yourself in the US anyway you may as well set up a C-corp, it's just as hard as registering a Canadian corporation for an EIN.

But like I said, I think your real problem doing this is your immigration status.

[fern1400]

Hi Steven,

thanks for the response. I actually called Liberty Mutual and they provide insurance for Canadian Corporations conducting business in the US. I'll have to look into the E Visa.

Regards,

Nisha

[apkesh]

Hi Nisha,
I am faced with a similar problem as well. I am on TN and have a company registered in Canada. My client in the US is asking me for 2 types of insurance policies: General comprehensive & Liability insurance (errors and ommisions) for 1 mil each. I called a couple of US companies and none of them would take me as my company is registed in Canada. Can you tell me how much I shouold be expecting to pay? Also, any other advice on what sort of info I need to give Liberty would be nice as well. Thanks in advance.

[Steven]

Just to add in a bit here because this started off about insurance, but I'm not clear why anyone would do it this way, because your corporation may be Canadian but if you're working for a Canadian corporation in the US it has to have an EIN, have a US payroll, pay US corporation taxes, file an 1120-F every year and so on. Essentially it becomes a US corporation with lots of funky paperwork like a T2 and you have to also think about claiming a foreign tax credit on schedule 21.

It's hideously complicated for just one person to do all this paperwork and an accountant would charge you a mint.

It's hideously complex to have two corporations as well, a Canadian one and a US one but at least there's tax software out there that you can use for that because both corporations are in a pretty standard situation. And you can always close down the Canadian one if you're not using it anymore.