Laura West

A recent decision of the Ontario Court of Appeal, Verch Estate v. Weckwerth, reaffirms the autonomy of Ontario testators to distribute their estates as they wish provided that their statutory obligations are fulfilled. In this case, which was brought to my attention by a post on Lynne Butler’s Estate Law Canada blog site, a testator had executed a will that left nothing to his adult independent children but instead left….

In previous blogs, I have written about the definition of “qualified donee” in the Income Tax Act (Canada). This definition is important for two reasons. First, in order for a gift made by an individual to qualify for charitable tax credits, the recipient must be a qualified donee. Second, under the Income Tax Act (Canada), registered charities are only able to make gifts (other than in the course of carrying….

Readers of this blog who are in some manner associated with federal non-profit corporations will likely already be aware that a new federal non-profit corporate statute, the Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act or “CNCA”, was proclaimed into force on October 17, 2011. The CNCA does not automatically apply to existing federal non-profit corporations currently governed by Part II of the Canada Corporations Act or the “CCA”. CCA corporations will continue to….