Can an American citizen continue to work as an independent contractor for a Canadian company after moving back to US?

Question

I am an American who moved to Montreal for grad school and then extended my stay with a postgraduate work permit. I have a fully online job with a Montreal-based company that I would like to continue even when I move back to the States. I'm considered an independent contractor. Is continue that work possible? What visa and tax requirements would I need to follow?

Answer 1

From an immigration perspective: There's obviously no problem, as US citizens have an unrestricted right to work in the US.

From a tax perspective: As a US citizen, you were presumably calculating US federal income tax and Self-Employment Tax on your US tax returns every year when you were working in Canada as an independent contractor (though you may have been able to reduce most or all of the income tax with the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion and/or the Foreign Tax Credit). You would be calculating the same taxes on your US tax returns now that you are working in the US, except that you wouldn't claim the foreign exclusion or credit anymore, and you also have to worry about state taxes. You wouldn't have to worry about Canadian taxes anymore as long as you are no longer considered a tax resident of Canada. (I am not familiar with exactly when Canadian tax residency ends.)