Of course, investing out of country comes with tribulations of its own - you need a good accountant and real estate / corporate lawyer, with cross-border experience, on your team to ensure you set things up correctly from a legal and taxation perspective.

Thanks @Kevin Macdonald ,To answer your second question, yes you should find a qualified Enrolled Agent licensed to practice before the IRS to assist you with your tax return.EAs are required to take CE in taxation whereas most other designations are not.

If you need this aspect sliced up, @Steven Hamilton II ought to jump in, I stay out of taxation as I don't keep up with it, that's why I have a CPA. :)

My aim is to set up an entity with the correct legal and taxation structure for buying property in the US.

Yes, this avoids transfer tax, at least in OH.

Taxation of net profits should be looked at.

I've read before on BP about LLC not being a good option for Canadians because we don't have the same structure here and it may trigger double taxation (I have not reserached this at all, --just giving caution).

IF you ever distribute it from the corp to yourself personally it is subject to tax at the corporate level between the difference of adjusted basis and fair market value.

I can read the tax code, but it gets very complicated as it makes references to other regulations and often speaks to other tax findings, so to really know taxation, there is a lot of research and knowledge in tax findings and tax law that becomes necessary to be a credible tax advisor.

A larger debt is a form of asset protection as it reduces the amount of equity you have and reduces the amount of potential loss.The reasons for having an LLC include, taxation, and asset protection, sometimes those are conflicting goals.And of course there is a cost to each LLC, not only in state & organization fees, but also tax return prep and yearly fees.