Author: Bloomberg News

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(Bloomberg) — E-commerce platform Shopify Inc. listed a New York headquarters in a US regulatory filing for the first time, stoking speculation about a US move amid anxiety in Canada about capital flight south of the border.

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The Ottawa-founded company filed a 10-K annual report on Feb. 11 to the US Securities and Exchange Commission that mentions New York as a “principal executive office” alongside its Canadian address.

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Shopify filed the domestic issuer 10-K instead of the foreign issuer 40-F form, analysts at TD Securities Inc. said in a note. They highlighted that the form contains a US employer identification number, a “key consideration” for FTSE Russell and other significant US index providers. 

Shopify also reordered how it reported segmented assets, “which flips the geographic breakdown” from majority Canadian to majority US.

“Since the country with the majority of assets is now the US and that matches the HQ, we expect that SHOP will be eligible for inclusion in the US indices at the next annual review in June,” the note added. 

“Shopify operates on the internet, everywhere — we’re a global company,” a company spokesperson said by email. “We chose to voluntarily file certain SEC forms, such as a 10-K, in order to align our disclosures more closely with other software peers we believe our investors are familiar with.”

Shopify is the Toronto Stock Exchange’s best performing equity over the past decade, and has always been dual-listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock already enjoys average higher trading volumes in the US. 

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At the top of its press releases, the company describes its location as “Internet, Everywhere.”

The filing change, first reported by the Financial Post newspaper, comes amid a fierce debate in Canada over capital drift to the US, stoked by President Donald Trump’s protectionist “America First” policy agenda.

On Monday, Montreal-based trucking company TFI International Inc. abandoned a decision to move its legal headquarters to the US after shareholder backlash. But Toronto’s Allied Gold Corp. is applying to list on the NYSE, while Barrick Gold Corp. is considering moving its headquarters to New York, it told Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper.

“This has become an existential crisis for Canada as this is likely only the beginning of the migration south,” the TD analysts said. “It is time for Canadian officials to wake up and fight back to defend against the company migration to the US – this is Defcon 1 for the country that just celebrated its 65th year with a red maple leaf in the middle of its flag.”

Company domicile is also an issue in the contest to replace Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who announced his resignation in January. One of his would-be successors to lead the ruling Liberal Party, former central banker Mark Carney, was attacked by the opposition Conservatives for his board role at Brookfield Asset Management Ltd., which announced in late 2024 it would move its head office to New York from Toronto to gain access to US indexes.

Carney resigned that role and others, including his chairmanship of Bloomberg Inc., in January. 

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Mark Carney will scrap a proposed increase to Canada’s capital gains tax and introduce a middle-class tax cut if he wins the Liberal Party leadership race and becomes prime minister, he said Wednesday.

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Carney — the former governor of the Bank of Canada and Bank of England — also pledged to raise Canada’s defense spending to two per of its gross domestic product by 2030, and to stimulate private investment to get millions of homes built.

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But he promised to keep the pricey social programs put in place by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government, such as the universal child-care subsidy, making it unclear how Carney would pay for the billions of dollars in tax relief and new military spending.

“In the coming weeks, I’ll propose a new approach to federal budgeting that will save precious taxpayer dollars while catalyzing the enormous investments that Canada needs to fully realize its promise,” Carney said, speaking in Windsor, Ont.

Liberal members will vote on a new leader March 9 to replace Trudeau.

Last spring, Trudeau’s government said it would increase the so-called capital gains inclusion rate — the amount of an investment gain that’s subject to income tax — to raise billions of dollars in revenue for housing and other programs. The tax hike has been in limbo because the government hasn’t been able to pass the legislation; it’s now supposed to come into effect in January 2026.

The hike is now unlikely to happen at all. Carney’s chief rival in the Liberal contest, former Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, has said she wouldn’t go forward with it. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has also rejected the tax change.

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It’s the second major Trudeau policy Carney has vowed to scrap. Last week he announced he would immediately move to cancel the consumer carbon tax, a flagship environmental policy Trudeau implemented in 2019 but that has become deeply unpopular as it rises each year.

Business leaders have denounced the capital gains hike as bad for investment.

“Let’s just kill that and think about how do we reduce capital gains taxes in Canada so we can incent Canadians to invest in Canadian companies for growth,” said John McKenzie, chief executive officer of TMX Group Ltd., the parent company of the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Carney also suggested he would make a broader tax cut but did not provide details. “Canada needs a middle-class tax cut and my government will give them one,” he said.

To address the trade uncertainty due to U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff threats, Carney said his government would seek to break down regulatory barriers to free up trade between provinces, and would look to diversify Canada’s exports away from the US.

“We know we shouldn’t put all our eggs in one basket,” he said. “We should become the essential trading partners of countries that share our values, including the UK, the EU, and leaders in Asia. We can do so through our leadership in clean energy, in critical minerals and in the intelligence infrastructure of the AI revolution.”

With assistance from Stephanie Hughes

Bloomberg.com

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