Answered October 2026

You may keep your Ontario corporation, but your existing TN Engineer authorization does not permit consulting for it from Tennessee simply because you take no salary and leave the money in Canada.

“I'm a Canadian citizen moving to Tennessee on a TN visa (Engineer category) and I own an Ontario corporation. Can I legally continue doing occasional consulting work for my Canadian corp while physically in the US if I take no salary and the money stays in Canada? Also, what are the US tax reporting requirements (like Form 5471 or GILTI) for keeping a foreign corporation after becoming a US tax resident?”

Summary

You do not have to assume that keeping your Ontario corporation costs you your TN status; the immediate boundary is what work you personally perform while in the United States. Your tax answer is manageable once you separate your U.S. residence date, your ownership percentage, the corporation’s other U.S. owners, and its accounts.

Your lawful choices depend on whether you will merely own the Ontario company, do its work outside the United States, or seek separate authorization for a genuine U.S.-client engagement.

Keep ownership, stop U.S.-based consultingsimplest

Keep your shares while someone else performs the corporation’s consulting, and perform only the engineering work covered by your while in Tennessee. The TN rule restricts the professional services you perform; it does not say you must dispose of foreign shares (8 CFR §§ 214.6(b), 214.1(e)(2)).

Do Canadian-company work in Canadawork abroad

Perform that consulting while physically in Canada instead of treating your Tennessee home as a second worksite for the corporation. This avoids relying on your U.S. TN admission to authorize that work in the United States; if you are a , Canadian-source pay or dividends can still matter on your U.S. return (8 CFR § 214.6(b); IRS Publication 519).

Obtain TN coverage for an independent U.S. clientnew approval

If your Ontario corporation has a genuinely independent U.S. client for prearranged Engineer services, USCIS recognizes that a person self-employed outside the United States may seek TN admission for such an arrangement. A signed client agreement or employer documentation must establish that distinct U.S. engagement; seek readmission with the additional documentation, or have a new U.S. employer obtain approval of its Form I-129, before doing the new work (USCIS Policy Manual, Vol. 2, Pt. P, Ch. 2; 8 CFR § 214.6(d), (i)).

Consult from Tennessee for your own companynot covered

Your existing TN Engineer job does not give you permission to serve your own Ontario corporation’s Canadian customers from Tennessee. No salary and Canadian-held receipts do not change the TN restriction on work for your controlled company or create a prearranged engagement for a separate U.S. entity (8 CFR §§ 214.6(b), 214.1(e)(2)).

None of these work arrangements, by itself, removes the U.S. tax reporting that follows from becoming a U.S. tax resident.

Read the full explanation

Watch out for

Unpaid does not mean authorizedDo not perform consulting for your Ontario corporation from Tennessee merely because you take no salary or leave its receipts in Canada. TN work must be authorized, and the TN regulation treats services to a company you solely or controllingly own as self-employment; unauthorized employment can jeopardize status (8 CFR §§ 214.6(b), 214.1(e)(2)).

A real U.S. client is differentOwning a Canadian business does not, by itself, foreclose a separate TN engagement providing prearranged Engineer services to an independent U.S. client. That engagement must actually fit the TN rules and be covered by the required admission or approval before you begin; permission for your Tennessee engineering job does not automatically cover another engagement (USCIS Policy Manual, Vol. 2, Pt. P, Ch. 2; 8 CFR § 214.6(d), (i)).

Canadian residence exceptions are narrowTN status does not decide tax residence. A closer-connection claim requires, among other things, fewer than 183 actual U.S. days in the year and a foreign tax home throughout that year; moving your tax home to Tennessee may prevent it. Even a treaty claim treating you as Canadian-resident for U.S. income-tax computation does not automatically remove U.S.-person treatment for other Code purposes, including CFC determinations (IRS substantial-presence and closer-connection guidance; 26 CFR § 301.7701(b)-7(a)(3)).

No dividend is no shieldA qualifying U.S. shareholder of a can have a section 951A income inclusion without taking a dividend. For applicable post-2025 years, the statute calls this , rather than the older GILTI terminology. Canadian corporate tax is not an automatic exemption: a regulatory high-tax exception requires an effective election and its tax-rate test; an individual may also consider the separate section 962 election, which has consequences for later distributions (26 USC §§ 951A, 962; 26 CFR § 1.951A-2(c)(7)).

Three separate reporting checksForm 5471, Form 8938, and the test different things. Foreign shares reported on Form 5471 still count toward Form 8938’s threshold, while signature authority over an Ontario corporate bank account can trigger an FBAR even though that account is not ordinarily your personal Form 8938 asset. Attach applicable IRS forms to the income-tax return; file the FBAR separately with FinCEN (Instructions for Forms 5471 and 8938; IRS FBAR guidance).

Next steps

Follow these steps in order to protect your TN work authorization and identify the foreign-company filings your facts actually trigger.

Before doing any company work from Tennessee

Separate your Tennessee job from corporate consulting

Perform only the work covered by your TN admission while physically in the United States; arrange for someone else to deliver the Ontario company’s consulting there, or perform your own Canadian-company work while in Canada. If an independent U.S. client offers a distinct prearranged Engineer engagement, document the client, services, duration, and qualifications and obtain TN coverage before beginning: 8 CFR § 214.6(d), (i) allows documentation from a foreign employer at admission or readmission, while an added U.S. employer must file Form I-129 with USCIS and await approval.

Requirements

Your TN job documentation

List of the Ontario corporation’s clients and work you personally perform

For your moving year

Calculate your U.S. tax-residence start

Apply the IRS substantial-presence test: at least 31 U.S. days in the current calendar year and 183 weighted days counting all current-year days, one-third of the prior year’s days, and one-sixth of the second-prior year’s days (https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/substantial-presence-test). Your arrival year can be a part-resident, part-nonresident year (IRS Publication 519). A closer-connection exception requires fewer than 183 actual U.S. days, a qualifying foreign tax home throughout the year, and Form 8840; a treaty-residence claim instead uses Form 1040-NR and a disclosure statement, but generally does not erase CFC determinations (IRS closer-connection guidance; 26 CFR § 301.7701(b)-7).

Requirements

Daily U.S. presence records for the current and two preceding calendar years

Dates your Tennessee and Canadian homes and tax homes were maintained

Once you become a U.S. person for the applicable rules

Classify your Ontario shares for Form 5471

Case A—at least 10% of vote or value when you become a U.S. person: assess Category 3 even if you bought the shares years earlier. Case B—more than 50% of vote or value: assess annual Category 4 control reporting; also assess Category 5 because a corporation more-than-50% owned in aggregate by qualifying U.S. shareholders is a . Case C—10% to 50%: Category 5 can still apply if other qualifying U.S. shareholders make the corporation a CFC. Below 10%, Categories 3–5 generally do not arise from direct ownership alone, though attribution and other filing categories must still be considered. Attach any required Form 5471 and its applicable schedules to your IRS income-tax return by that return’s deadline, including extensions (https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i5471.pdf).

Requirements

Share register showing voting power and value

Other U.S. shareholders and related ownership

Corporation’s tax year and financial statements

If the Ontario company is a CFC

Account for any CFC income without waiting for cash

Calculate the section 951A inclusion under the rules applicable to the corporation’s tax year and report it with your U.S. income-tax filing; a dividend is not a prerequisite. Current law calls the post-2025 inclusion , although older material may call the earlier regime GILTI (26 USC § 951A). A high-tax exclusion requires a qualifying effective election and tax-rate test under 26 CFR § 1.951A-2(c)(7); an individual shareholder’s separate section 962 election is not automatic (26 USC § 962). For an ordinary calendar-year 2026 resident return, the statutory filing date is April 15, 2027, subject to applicable extensions (26 USC § 6072(a)).

Requirements

Corporate income, deductions, and Canadian tax records

Your share and the corporation’s tax-year start date

With the same year’s tax records

Check Form 8938 and file any FBAR separately

If you live in Tennessee, file Form 8938 with the IRS return when specified foreign financial assets exceed $50,000 at year-end or $75,000 at any time if unmarried or married filing separately, or $100,000/$150,000 if married filing jointly; count shares disclosed on Form 5471 toward that threshold and identify the duplicative form rather than repeating the asset detail (https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i8938.pdf). Separately, if foreign accounts over which you have a reportable financial interest or signature authority together exceed $10,000 at any time in 2026, electronically file FinCEN Form 114 at https://bsaefiling.fincen.gov/ by April 15, 2027, with an automatic extension to October 15, 2027; do not attach it to your tax return (IRS FBAR guidance).

Requirements

Year-end and highest-year values of foreign shares and accounts

Ontario corporate bank-account ownership and signature-authority records

Marital and federal filing status

Others who faced this

You are not the first to go through this. Here is how it went for others who asked the same thing.

500k in Canadian Corp, moving to US on TN. Need advise

u/ranx444r/cantaxMay 23, 2026

I’m going through this now. You can post your shares as security with the CRA in lieu of paying the departure tax. Must hire a tax lawyer and an accountant to do this. The departure tax will be unwound if you return to Canada. The biggest complexity is taxation on the US side. The corp will be classified as a CFC and you may owe tax personally to the IRS on the corp’s annual profits unless the corp qualifies for the High Tax Exemption (HTE) - total corp tax rate in Canada must be greater than ~18.9%.

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Legal sources

This answer rests on the TN regulations and USCIS Policy Manual, the Internal Revenue Code and Treasury regulations, and IRS form instructions.

8 CFR 214.6(b)

TN does not authorize a U.S. self-employed practice and expressly addresses services to a company the professional controls.

8 CFR 214.6(b)

(b), definition of professional-level business activities

It does not authorize the establishment of a business or practice in the United States in which the professional will be, in substance, self-employed. A professional will be deemed to be self-employed if he or she will be rendering services to a corporation or entity of which the professional is the sole or controlling shareholder or owner.

Summary

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