Direct answer
Opening a business in Canada means settling five things: a legal form, a jurisdiction of formation, federal tax registrations, the provincial layer where you actually operate, and a bank that will accept the entity you built. Two questions decide almost everything else. Are you inside or outside Canada, because immigration status, a Social Insurance Number, director residency, Canadian-controlled private corporation status, corporate tax residency and identity verification all turn on it? And where will the business actually operate, because that province's registry, sales-tax regime, payroll body and licences apply regardless of where you incorporated? Federal incorporation costs $200 online and takes about a day [1], but it does not replace provincial registration in any province where you conduct business [3], and the federal rule requiring resident-Canadian directors has no equivalent in most provinces today [2].
Three caveats shape everything below. Incorporating in Canada is not permission to work in Canada. A Canadian registered office does not make a corporation Canadian-controlled for tax purposes. And no page, including this one, can tell you that a specific bank will open a specific account.
Which track are you on
The cluster splits at the top because the decision trees genuinely diverge, not because the pages needed a category. A founder who lives in Montreal and a founder who lives in Mumbai are not doing the same task with different paperwork; they are answering different questions in a different order.
| Founder inside Canada | Founder outside Canada | |
|---|---|---|
| Who this is | Citizens, permanent residents, and work- or study-permit holders whose permit authorizes work | Non-residents with no Canadian status, and residents of Canada's tax treaty partners |
| First question | Which jurisdiction and legal form fit the business | Whether the founder needs to be in Canada at all, and what the corporation's tax residency will be |
| Usual blockers | Provincial licences, payroll registration, workers' compensation | Director residency, identity verification, tax residency, banking |
| Start here | Start a business in Canada from inside Canada | Start a business in Canada from abroad |
The seven points where the tracks diverge
1. Immigration status is separate from ownership. Owning or directing a Canadian corporation is not work authorization. IRCC's business-visitor rules require that you not plan to enter the Canadian labour market and that your main place of business, source of income and profits stay outside Canada; someone who plans to stay beyond six months or to work may be a temporary worker who needs a work permit [10]. Entrepreneur immigration is a separate track again, and it is not currently a route: IRCC states that the Start-up Visa Program "was paused on June 30, 2026" and that it will continue to process applications accepted before that date [11]. Any guide that presents the Start-up Visa as an open door was written before that date.
2. A Social Insurance Number follows status, not incorporation. The SIN is the nine-digit identifier needed to work in Canada or access government programs and benefits. Temporary residents receive a SIN beginning with 9 that expires with their immigration documents; a non-resident with no Canadian status has no route to one through incorporating a company [12]. Registrations and accounts that assume a director has a SIN are a common surprise on Track B.
3. Director residency is decided by the statute you incorporate under — and the provinces have mostly abandoned it. Federally, ordinarily at least 25% of directors must be resident Canadians, and where a corporation has fewer than four directors at least one must be a resident Canadian; sectors subject to ownership restrictions and certain cultural sectors require a majority [2]. The provincial picture now runs the other way, which is the opposite of what most older guides say. Ontario's 25% resident-Canadian rule was repealed in 2021, leaving a disqualification list with no residency clause [15]. Alberta's one-quarter rule was repealed in 2020 [17]. British Columbia's qualification section has never contained one [16]. Manitoba is the exception verified for this page: at least 25% of a corporation's directors must be residents of Canada, and where the board is three or fewer, one of them must be [18]. For a founder with no Canadian-resident director available, this one point frequently decides between federal and provincial incorporation.
4. Canadian-controlled private corporation status is a control test, not an address test. The CRA describes a CCPC as, in general terms, a private corporation resident in Canada that is not controlled directly or indirectly by one or more non-resident persons or public corporations; its own worked example shows a corporation failing the test because a 60% shareholder is not a resident of Canada [8]. Because the small business deduction and the enhanced SR&ED credit ride on that status, foreign ownership changes the tax arithmetic before it changes anything else.
5. Corporate tax residency can attach in two directions. Subsection 250(4) deems a corporation incorporated in Canada after 26 April 1965 to be resident in Canada throughout the tax year. Separately, at common law a company is resident where its central management and control is actually exercised, usually where the board meets, judged on the facts rather than on what the articles say [7]. A founder abroad can therefore create a Canadian-resident corporation by incorporating here, and a foreign corporation can become Canadian-resident by being run from here. Treaties can reverse the result.
6. Permanent establishment decides which province taxes you. A permanent establishment is usually a fixed place of business, but it also arises through an employee or agent with general authority to contract, or a stock of merchandise from which orders are filled. Critically, a corporation that would not otherwise have a permanent establishment anywhere is deemed to have one at the place designated in its incorporating documents or bylaws as its head office or registered office [9]. The registered-office address is therefore a tax fact, not only a mailing convenience.
7. Bank onboarding is an identity problem before it is a business problem. FINTRAC requires reporting entities, including banks and credit unions, to verify the identity of persons and entities, and sets out the permitted methods: government-issued photo identification, credit file, dual process, affiliate or member, and reliance, with separate methods for entities [13]. The photo-identification method assesses an authentic, valid and current document, and when done in person it is assessed in the presence of the person being identified. That single design constraint is why travel questions dominate Track B, and why no page can promise a remote account opening.
Federal or provincial
The five-line version. Federal incorporation under the Canada Business Corporations Act gives one legal person with name rights across Canada, costs $200 online and completes in about a day [1]. It does not exempt you from provincial registration: provincial and territorial legislation requires a federal corporation to register in each jurisdiction where it conducts business, and Corporations Canada's own examples of conducting business include having an address, a post-office box or a phone number in a province, or offering services or products there [3]. Provincial incorporation means one registry instead of two if you will genuinely operate in one province only — and, for a founder with no Canadian-resident director, it can also mean escaping the federal 25% board rule [2]. The choice does not settle tax: the corporation is taxed where it has a permanent establishment, whoever chartered it [9].
The full comparison, including the cases where two registries are cheaper than one, is in federal versus provincial incorporation.
Choosing a province
Read this table as a routing device. The registry column and the sales-tax column come from consolidated official sources that cover all thirteen jurisdictions at once [3] [6]. The director-residency column states a rule only where this page read the governing statute directly; every other cell routes to the province guide, which carries its own statute citation. Fees, processing times and provincial corporate tax rates are deliberately absent here — one number per province belongs on the province page, where a registry source can carry it.
| Province or territory | Registry | Sales tax | Director residency | Distinctive fact |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ontario | Extra-provincial corporations, via the Ontario Business Registry | 13% HST | None — the 25% rule was repealed in 2021 [15] | Extra-provincial registration can be completed during federal incorporation through the joint federal-provincial service [3] |
| British Columbia | BC Registries and Online Services | 5% GST + 7% PST | None — the qualification section has no residency clause [16] | Registration for a federal corporation runs through a partnered provincial process after incorporation [3] |
| Alberta | Alberta corporate registry | 5% GST, no PST | None — the one-quarter rule was repealed by SA 2020 c. 25, in force 29 March 2021 [17] [19] | The only province with no provincial sales tax layer at all [6] |
| Quebec | Registraire des entreprises | 5% GST + 9.975% QST | See the province guide | Holding a Québec address, post-office box or telephone line is itself an activity trigger for registration [14] |
| Saskatchewan | Saskatchewan Corporate Registry | 5% GST + 6% PST | See the province guide | Lowest provincial sales-tax rate among the PST provinces [6] |
| Manitoba | Companies Office | 5% GST + 7% PST | At least 25% must be residents of Canada; one if the board is three or fewer [18] | The only one of the thirteen where this page verified a surviving residency quota [18] |
| Nova Scotia | Registry of Joint Stock Companies | 14% HST | See the province guide | The HST rate fell from 15% to 14% on 1 April 2025 — check the date on any rate you were quoted [6] |
| New Brunswick | Corporate Registry | 15% HST | See the province guide | One of four jurisdictions at the 15% HST rate [6] |
| Prince Edward Island | Business registration, extra-provincial corporations | 15% HST | See the province guide | Registration is handled through the provincial business-registration service rather than a partnered federal flow [3] |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | Registry of Companies | 15% HST | See the province guide | Extra-provincial registration can be completed during federal incorporation through the joint service [3] |
| Yukon | Business Corporations, Yukon Corporate Affairs | 5% GST only | See the province guide | No territorial sales tax [6] |
| Northwest Territories | Corporate Registries | 5% GST only | See the province guide | No territorial sales tax [6] |
| Nunavut | Legal Registries | 5% GST only | See the province guide | No territorial sales tax [6] |
A caution about that fourth column: "see the province guide" means this hub did not carry a citation for that cell, not that a requirement exists. Do not read a blank as a barrier, and do not read Ontario's or Alberta's repeal as a general rule — Manitoba shows the quota can survive.
Every province guide contains an If you are outside Canada section covering that jurisdiction's director-residency rule, registered-office and attorney-for-service requirements, and what a non-resident can file remotely. Four provinces also have a dedicated non-resident guide, because they are where most foreign founders actually land: Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta and Quebec. If you are weighing those four against each other, read the four-province comparison for non-residents. If the sales-tax column is what you are actually deciding on, read HST versus GST plus PST versus QST.
The sequence every founder follows
The order is not arbitrary. Each stage produces a record the next stage asks for, which is why founders who jump to the bank first usually come back.
| Stage | What happens | What it produces | Where the tracks differ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Name | A numbered name is assigned, or a word name is proposed and reviewed. Federally, a separate Nuans report is no longer ordered before incorporating online with a word name: the corporate name search is part of the incorporation process [1] | An approved corporate name, or a number | Quebec applies French-language name rules; see the Quebec guide |
| 2. Incorporation or registration | Articles are filed with the chosen registry, or a sole proprietorship or partnership is registered instead | Certificate and articles, or a business-name registration | Director residency binds here, and differs sharply between the federal Act and most provinces [2] |
| 3. BN and program accounts | One nine-digit business number identifies the business; program accounts for GST/HST, payroll and others attach to it with a program identifier [5] | BN plus the accounts the activity actually requires | Non-resident businesses register through a distinct CRA route |
| 4. Provincial registration | Register in each province or territory where the business conducts business — an address, a post-office box, a phone number or offering services there can be enough [3] | Provincial file numbers; in Quebec, an NEQ [14] | Non-residents may need an attorney for service or a mandatary |
| 5. Payroll and workers' compensation | A payroll program account is opened before the first payment to an employee; workers' compensation is a separate provincial body | Payroll account, provincial employer registrations | A SIN is needed to work in Canada, and it follows immigration status [12] |
| 6. Licences | Federal, provincial, territorial and municipal permits apply according to the activity and the municipality, not the legal form | The licence set for the actual business | Identical for both tracks; the activity decides, not the founder's location |
| 7. Bank and address | The bank verifies the entity and the individuals behind it under FINTRAC's methods [13] | An operating account, and a consistent address record | This is where Track B stalls; see opening from abroad |
| 8. Records and transparency | CBCA corporations keep an ISC register and file ISC information with Corporations Canada, updating at least annually and within 15 days of learning of a change [4] | A maintained register, filed ownership information | Ownership through foreign entities must be traced to individuals |
Track A walks this sequence in start a business from inside Canada. Track B walks the same eight stages with the divergence points applied, in start a business from abroad.
How this research was produced
This cluster is built to a source ladder, and the ladder is the reason to trust or discard any given sentence. Tier 1 is the statute or regulation itself. Tier 2 is the registry that administers it. Tier 3 is the tax authority, tier 4 the immigration authority, tier 5 FINTRAC. Law-firm pages, accounting-firm summaries and incorporation-service comparison tables are used to find a rule and never to support one; several appeared in the searches behind this page with fee tables and residency summaries that are not reproduced here because no registry confirmed them.
Every page carries a verifiedOn date, and every fee, rate, threshold and deadline was fetched from an official page on that date rather than recalled. Where a value could not be verified, the page says so instead of estimating. Each page has a source pack listing every URL fetched and what it establishes, and an evidence file mapping each claim to its source and recording discrepancies. Citations are re-checked monthly, because registry rules, tax rates and immigration programs change on their own schedule. Three facts on this page alone would have been wrong a short time ago: Ontario's and Alberta's director-residency repeals, Nova Scotia's HST reduction, and the pause of the Start-up Visa Program.
The full method, the source packs and the open questions are published at the cluster's research index.
What 2727 can and cannot support
2727 Coworking is a coworking space in Griffintown, Montreal. It sells private offices, desks, meeting rooms and a business-address service. That is the whole of what it can offer a founder, and it is worth being exact about the boundary.
A 2727 address can be a legitimate registered office for a federal or a Quebec corporation, because the registered office for those is in Quebec. It is a mailing and correspondence address for anyone. It is not a registered office for a corporation incorporated in Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta or any other province — those statutes require the registered office to be in that province, and no mail service changes that.
2727 does not incorporate companies, file with any registry, give legal, tax or immigration advice, or open bank accounts. Nobody here can tell you that a registry, a bank or the CRA will accept any particular document, and this page makes no such claim. Note also that an address is not a neutral choice: a Québec address, post-office box or telephone line is itself listed as an activity trigger for Québec registration [14], and a registered office can be the deemed permanent establishment that determines which province taxes the corporation [9]. Choose an address for what it is, not for convenience.
The address-role material is at business address, the bank-by-bank research at business banking research, the two relevant scenarios at federal corporation and opening from abroad, and the non-resident overview at non-residents.
Research method and limitations
This page was researched and verified on 6 September 2026. Discovery used Exa semantic and keyword search; every landed fact was then fetched from the official page that establishes it — Corporations Canada, the Canada Revenue Agency, IRCC, Service Canada, FINTRAC, the Government of Québec, and the governing corporations statutes on the provinces' own legislation sites. The source pack lists every URL read.
What was not done matters as much. No incorporation was filed, no registry account was opened, no bank was applied to and no immigration application was submitted, so nothing here is tested against a real file. The hub deliberately does not state per-province incorporation fees, processing times or corporate income-tax rates; those live on the province guides, where a single registry page can support each one. Director residency was researched for all thirteen jurisdictions but stated here only for the four whose statute is cited above, because a hub-level assertion needs a hub-level citation. Provincial nominee entrepreneur streams, municipal licensing and sector regulation are named as considerations but not enumerated. Two currency caveats carry over from the evidence file: the Alberta consolidation consulted is current to December 2023, and the Nunavut consolidation available is current to 2015 with later amending Acts checked separately.
This is educational planning material, not legal, tax, accounting, immigration or banking advice.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to be a Canadian citizen or resident to own a Canadian company?
Ownership and immigration status are separate questions. What ownership by non-residents does affect is director residency under the statute you incorporate under, and Canadian-controlled private corporation status for tax, which the CRA describes as requiring that the corporation not be controlled directly or indirectly by non-resident persons or public corporations [8].
Do I need a Canadian-resident director?
Federally, yes in most cases: ordinarily at least 25% of directors must be resident Canadians, and at least one where the board has fewer than four [2]. Provincially, usually not — Ontario repealed its rule in 2021 [15], Alberta in 2020 [17], and British Columbia never had one [16]. Manitoba still requires 25% [18]. Check the province guide for anywhere else.
Can I work in my own Canadian company from inside Canada?
Not automatically. A business visitor must not plan to enter the Canadian labour market, and must show that their main place of business, source of income and profits remain outside Canada; someone intending to stay beyond six months or to work may need a work permit [10]. Owning shares does not create work authorization.
Is the Start-up Visa still an option?
Not for new applicants. IRCC states the program "was paused on June 30, 2026" and that it will continue processing applications accepted before that date [11]. Because programs reopen and change without notice, re-read that page before relying on anything written about it, including this sentence.
Should I incorporate federally or provincially?
Federally if you want one name across Canada or expect to operate in several provinces; provincially if you will genuinely operate in one, or if the federal board-residency rule is a problem. Either way you register provincially wherever you conduct business, and Corporations Canada counts having an address, a post-office box or a phone number in a province as conducting business [3]. The comparison guide works through the cases.
Does incorporating in Canada make my company a Canadian taxpayer?
Generally yes, and possibly more than you intended. Subsection 250(4) deems a corporation incorporated in Canada after 26 April 1965 resident in Canada for the tax year, and separately a company is resident at common law where its central management and control is actually exercised [7]. A treaty may change the outcome, so this is a question for a tax adviser, not a checklist.
Which province's tax applies if I have no office anywhere?
A corporation with no permanent establishment anywhere else is deemed to have one at the head office or registered office designated in its incorporating documents or bylaws [9]. In other words, the address you chose for convenience can be the address that decides your provincial tax.
Do I need a Canadian bank account, and can I open one remotely?
Most businesses need one to be paid and to remit taxes. Whether it can be opened without travelling depends on the institution's own process within FINTRAC's identity-verification methods, which include in-person and non-face-to-face routes [13]. No page can promise a remote opening; ask the named institution before booking travel or assuming you can avoid it.
What do I have to keep filing after I incorporate?
At minimum: the registry's annual filing, the corporate tax return, any GST/HST and payroll returns tied to your program accounts [5], and, for CBCA corporations, the ISC register and filing, updated at least annually and within 15 days of learning of a change [4]. Each province guide lists that jurisdiction's annual filing and the consequence of missing it.
Can I use a coworking or mailbox address as my registered office?
Only where the statute allows it, and only in the right province. A Montreal address can serve as the registered office of a federal or Quebec corporation, and as a mailing address for anyone, but it is not a registered office for an Ontario, BC or Alberta corporation. Beyond that, no provider can tell you what a registry or bank will accept for a given field — and in Québec, holding an address or telephone line is itself an activity trigger for registration [14].
Official references
- Corporations Canada: services, fees and processing times
- Corporations Canada: directors and officers
- Corporations Canada: register a federal corporation in a province or territory
- Corporations Canada: individuals with significant control
- Canada Revenue Agency: business number and CRA program accounts
- Canada Revenue Agency: GST/HST calculator and rates by province
- Canada Revenue Agency: residency of a corporation
- Canada Revenue Agency: how certain relationships affect the small business deduction and SR&ED investment tax credits
- Canada Revenue Agency: permanent establishment
- Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada: business visitors attending meetings, events and conferences
- Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada: Start-up Visa Program eligibility and status
- Service Canada: Social Insurance Number
- FINTRAC: methods to verify the identity of persons and entities
- Gouvernement du Québec: about the registration of an enterprise
- Government of Ontario: Business Corporations Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. B.16, s. 118
- Government of British Columbia: Business Corporations Act, S.B.C. 2002, c. 57, s. 124
- King's Printer Alberta: Business Corporations Act, R.S.A. 2000, c. B-9, s. 105
- Government of Manitoba: The Corporations Act, C.C.S.M. c. C225, s. 100
- King’s Printer Alberta: Order in Council 81/2021