Who We Help · Dance Studios · Cross-Border Tax
Dance studio cross-border tax: competitions, guest artists, and costumes
For most Canadian dance studios the cross-border file is money flowing out — US competition entry fees, travel, and costume orders — and none of it triggers US tax. The real trap sits at home: pay an American guest choreographer to teach in your studio and CRA expects you to withhold 15% of the fee. We keep the outbound costs clean, the withholding handled, and an honest eye on the rare cases where US income actually appears.
By the AnalytIQ Accounting team · Last reviewed: August 12, 2026
Competition season: deductible costs, nothing to withhold
Entry fees, convention passes, hotel blocks, and flights for a US circuit are ordinary business costs, deducted at their CAD conversion. There is nothing to withhold when you pay a US competition or convention, because Regulation 105 only applies to services performed in Canada — and the event happens in Ohio or Las Vegas. One adjustment surprises studios used to claiming input tax credits on everything: there is no GST/HST inside a US invoice, so nothing comes back on that spending.
The bookkeeping risk is the pass-through. Studios collect competition money from families months before the organizer gets paid, and those floats are not revenue — while the studio's own fees to parents keep their normal GST/HST treatment. Our dance studio bookkeeping keeps parent floats, studio fees, and USD payments in separate lanes so season-end reconciliation is arithmetic, not forensics.
A US guest choreographer makes you a CRA withholding agent
The trap runs opposite to the travel. Bring an American choreographer, adjudicator, or convention teacher into your studio and the fee is for services performed in Canada: you must withhold 15% under Regulation 105, remit it to CRA, and issue a T4A-NR slip by the end of February. Miss it and CRA assesses the studio for the tax plus penalties and interest — the liability is yours, not the artist's.
A waiver can reduce or remove the withholding where the treaty protects the guest, but it must be granted before payment; there is no retroactive fix. For a studio that books two or three US guest artists a year, we template the whole flow — contract wording, withholding, remittance, slips — so each visit is a checklist, not a scramble.
| Cross-border flow | What applies |
|---|---|
| Entry fees and travel paid to US organizers | No withholding; deduct at converted CAD; no GST/HST to recover |
| US guest choreographer teaching in your studio | Withhold 15% under Regulation 105; T4A-NR slips by end of February |
| Bulk costume orders from US suppliers | GST at the border, duty when origin is offshore, plus brokerage fees |
| US cash prizes or paid performances | US-source income; withholding rules can reach it — flag before accepting |
Costumes cross the border with costs attached
Bulk orders from US costume houses arrive with GST owing at the border and courier brokerage fees on top — and often duty, because apparel duty follows where the garments were made, and much of what US suppliers ship was sewn offshore. A US invoice does not mean duty-free. Price costume fees to families off the landed cost, not the catalogue price, or the competition team quietly becomes a subsidy line.
Prizes, titles, and the honest limits of this page
Most US competitions pay winners in scholarships and credits against future entries, which rarely creates a US tax file for a Canadian studio. Cash prizes and paid US performances are different: they are US-source income, the entertainer withholding rules can reach them, and a studio corporation cannot claim the individual treaty exemption that protects a low-earning performer. If your senior company is moving from competing to performing for fees, talk to our cross-border tax team before the contract is signed — withholding is far easier to prevent than to recover.
Source: CRA — IC75-6R2, Required Withholding from Amounts Paid to Non-Residents Providing Services in Canada.
Common questions.
Do we withhold anything when we pay a US competition its entry fees?
No. Regulation 105 withholding applies to services performed in Canada, and the competition takes place in the US. The fees are simply deductible costs at their CAD conversion.
We paid a US guest choreographer with no withholding. How bad is that?
CRA can assess the studio for the 15% plus penalties and interest — the liability sits with the payer. It is worth correcting proactively, and waivers only ever work before payment, never after.
Our dancers won scholarship money at a US competition. Is that taxable to the studio?
Scholarships and entry credits rarely create a US tax issue for the studio. Cash prizes are US-source income and can attract withholding, so tell us before accepting one of any size.
Related reading
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