How to open a company in Canada?

[OceanWindRider]

Hey, guys basically some other thread here prompted me to ask away here

I am getting throught a horrible divorce right now. Without getting into too many details, I got falsely accused of being abusive in multiple ways to my wife and being a terrible parent. My wife is trying to take away my son, kicked me out of an apartment and I lost my job due to stress and having to spend time running around lawyers and doctors. Now, I am fighting with her in court, that will take away ALL our savings because she is not willing to negotiate at all.

So basically, after my life was a living hell for the last half a year I am committed to give money to lawyers rather than to give anything to my wife. As for my son, i can set up a savings account for him.

Now, to the point... I am an IT Consultant who lives in Canada - a software developer. If I get a new job, I will be working 9 hours a day and my wife will get half the money. As I said - I am committed to not let that happen.
I would rather have a job as a pizza guy - it would be way less stress
But I need money for the divorce

I tried to ask on a generic forum. Even with explaining my situation and reasoning - probably 3 times as long as here, my account was deleted within a day - probably by some feminist who wants to help a sister in need.

So I want to open a company to get another IT Consulting job here, in Canada.
But I want to make me look as poor on paper as I can.
Low salary, shared company ownership or whatever. I have no idea how to do it properly though.
So does anybody have any ideas how to do it?


Thanks,
OceanWindRider

 

[amoka]

I express my sympathy for the unfortunate thing that happened to you. If I get you right, you're trying to get a substantial paying job that you enjoy doing; however, you would prefer not to earn a whole lot of money by doing the job because you ex will end up consuming half of what you'd make. I don't think that is a good idea because no matter what you do, you'd be paying her 50% of your income anyway. So, why don't you to something great that you can also benefit from it? Now, is your wife in Canada or in the US?

 

[legolas]

I feel your pain buddy. I have a friend who I work with, who also is going through a horrible divorce. He had companies set up to do real estate but he said that tha didn't protect them from the divorce. He's got almost nothing, other than his job. The sad part is that she was his GF and he never intended to marry her but the b!tch made him feel guilty about it and he married out of guilt. Probably ther worse decision of his life. He didn't even marry for the right reasons.

Don't let your divorce linger around for too long. No matter what you set up, even if it were a company, you'd be asked to give her half your income anyway. I don't think it is wise to work to make money to give to lawyers so you can fight the b!tch in court.

The added stress is not worth it!!

You may think that your solution is the best one, and I know you'd rather see your son more often, but in your case, it may be wiser to move along fast, and get out of the rut you're in.

My opinion:

1. Settle quickly, maybe even give the b!tch what she wants, don't spend money on lawyers it's not worth it. Spending hundreds of thousands of dollars just to send your point accross is not a good investment and it's wasted time. Lawyers love to drag cases as long as possible to collect more fees.

2. Move on with your life. IANAL but I think in about 18 years (or less depending on your son's age) you'd be able to see your son again legally. You can even set up a trust fund for him if you like.

 

[Jamo]

I have a better idea

Ok Im just going out on a limb here. I would rather go to jail than pay some dumb b1tch 50% of anything substantial. The best way would be to open 2 companies. One which earns your real income (but that company should be registered abroad - lets say the virgin islands), and another company in canada. Your virgin island company gets the total earnings (to which the account would be a numbered swiss account - $80,000 needed as balance, but that does not need to be deposited immediately check out: http://swiss-bank-accounts.com/e/index.html). In essence your local canadian company will "do the work" for this other company (and if setup correclty I believe you can hide the identity of the owner of the offshore company), and that other company pays you. Lets say the offshore company charges $20,000 for a particular job. the client will pay $20,000 to the offshore company. And the offshore company will pay your canadian company $5000 as services rendered (you will need to be abit creative on the type of services - maybe for writing a part of a program etc). You declare this $5000 as your official income, while that $15,000 goes to your swiss account which is in turn owned by your virign island company (the owner of the company is a swiss numbered account, therefore untraceable). You will of course have to be very careful how you spend the unaccounted money otherwise you might attract undue attention -because the catch here is that this would be considered fraud (not tax evasion which is not a felony in swiss law), and swiss banking secrecy laws can be lifted ONLY IF this can be proven. Thus you pay the dirty b1tch only $2,500 a month. Maybe this is just wild rambling, but i dunno look into it.

 

[Vulpine]

There are several websites dedicated to helping start up new companies for entrepeneurs to use. You'll likely have to devote some time to the research, but eventually you'll come up with lists of contact phone numbers, forms, and local links too. Plus, you'll get some free "good to know" insight along the way.

http://canada.gc.ca/main_e.html
there are some links along the left such as "list of agencies"

I know here in the US, once I tracked down the phone number, it was a matter of one phone call and I got a federal employer's identification number (FEIN), from there it was a matter of calling the state. The state paperwork was more intense than the federal. Go figure - sales tax and whatnot was local versus federal. Anyway...

If the government website doesn't have any obvious leads, contact a local SBA (small business association). You can usually find phone numbers for local SBA's, CoC's (sorry, chamber of commerce), or whatever version Canada has, in a phone book. Also, if you attend a function or even stop in and pick someone's brain in person, you can get them to personally give you all the necessary contacts. Many of those organizations are a regular "good guy league" or "support network" on a personal level. I strongly suggest getting cozy with one of those organizations and making friends from the start - their are lots of favors/discounts passed back and forth between members. Plus, you get free marketing through networking, and some pick-up business just for being on a listing.

Good luck, sorry about your predicament. Way to put a postive frame on it though!

 

[Cesare Cardinali]

Ae.

 

[OceanWindRider]

Thanks, guys!
amoka, that's not exactly the case. If my wife claims spousal support because she earns substantially less than me and I can show that is not the case - she won't get anything at all.

legolas, I hear ya. I am not sure I can pull it off though. I might in the very beginning, but I was way too shocked and devastated to think that smart. Settling is not an option as my wife does not want to negotiate. And accepting her conditions with no negotiations would mean that she would work 2 days a week (she can choose so), I would work 45 hour week + self-education and we would end up with the same money. So... do I want to work my ass off for her??? NO WAY!!
And besides, our main issue is child custody. I am very close with my son and I don't want to lose him. I think it's important for children to have both parents in their life.

vulpine, thanks for the ideas. However, the problem I have is not to open a company, but how to set it up in a particular way.

Jamo, i was thinking about opening the company in the off-shore zone. I have some distant friends who do that. Maybe I should talk to them. However they mention that this kind of thing makes sense only if I earn > $100K, which is not the case.. I'll talk to them anyway!

 

[legolas]

You need to talk to a lawyer. I'm serious that is the only option at this point.