Good morning,
I am looking into starting a small online travel business in which will run from Costa Rica.
The travel agency basically will assist people with their travel arragements and be a web site with information on where to go, transportation, restaurants in Costa Rica. Being Canadian I am thinking that I should register the business in Canada and in turn this will assist me with some of the tax situations with the company.
The company will be registered in Costa Rica
-Do I need to register for PST or GST if the company will not be operating in Costa Rica
-What benefits would I receive being registered in Canada vs. only registering in Costa Rica

Thank you for your time,
Jana

Your business plan as outlined here is a little confusing in that first you say it will be run out of Costa Rica, and then you say it will not be operating in Cost Rica.

As for the Goods and Services Tax and Provincial Tax, if a client purchases a travel plan from you in say Ontario, they will have to pay applicable Provincial taxes and Goods and Services Tax. You don't say which Province.

As far as benefis from registering in Canada (again no Province and it does make a difference) then I suggest you call Revenue Canada to ask them. Or, consult an attorney regarding the legalities of starting up.

Your plans are still just in the embryo stage then ?

Ms tickle

Thanks Ms. Tickle,
First sorry about the mistake.
I live in Costa Rica but am from Ontario
Here is the business plan outline:
We would be web based so that clientes search our catalog of hotels, restaurants etc...
The clientes don't pay us, we would help with the planning and reservations but the clients pay directly to the hotel.
The income of the business is the commission that we would make from reservations to the hotels or car rental etc..
The hotel lets say would pay us 20% of the sale. I know it will be slow at first...
But that money would be deposited here in Costa Rica as the hotels are here in Costa Rica, we would have a bank account here.
I wanted to register in Canada for future, it may be a benefit seeing as I am Canadian.
But I am not sure where I would stand on the tax issues...

Thanks

HI again, Jana, it sounds like you have a good idea there and I wish you success. Then you don't have to deal with PST and GST. It will be a foreign country so nothing to do with our Ontario taxes.

As for registering your business in Canada, I don't know what benefit that would be if any, seeing as it is a foreign undertaking. If you still maintain a tax status as a Canadian, then it may benefit you to register in Canada. You will have to call Revenue Canada in order to clarify that though.

Tick