I have heard somewhere that in order to be eligible for a tax exempt a Canadian has to work abroad for over 180 days out of a year. I may be wrong.
I am pretty sure that a Canadian has to claim his gambling affiliate commission earnings as regular income with all the consequences, no matter where the company that sent him cheques is originated.
For an affiliate it is sometimes like a guessing game – finding out which exactly affiliate company stands behind the payer’s requisites on the cheque he received. At the same time, for the authorities it would not be a problem to find out who is the payment sender and what the company’s business is about. So, unless you are hidden behind an offshore company, or have somebody cashing an affiliate cheque for you, it is not hard at all for the taxman to uncover the origins of your income.
With this increasing noise about online gambling, uneasiness of the whole situation with gambling affiliation in Canada and the US, I have seriously started to think about registering an offshore corporation. It is just one thing that makes me hesitant. To justify the future offshore expenses (~$1,000/ year) and the whole inconvenience of having your business headquarters thousands of miles away (even if is on paper only!), I need to have affiliate earnings of at least $10,000/year which I will not have at least for the nearest year or two (maybe will not have it ever?). The only question for me is: does it really worth it? I would like to know will my effort be paid fairly?… Nobody can answer it, only future will tell.
Unless I will be able to find one more use for an offshore enterprize.