There is renewed discussion on whether Canada will become another jurisdiction where specific gift or estate taxes will be imposed on inheritances. There is speculation that the discussion will lead to something concrete as early as next week’s Federal Budget. In the meantime, there are situations where inheritances can come…
Steven Frye
Baker Tilly WM LLP is a leading, independent audit, tax, and business advisory firm based in Vancouver and Toronto, serving clients across Canada. Drawing on well-trained teams across a variety of disciplines, we ensure the alignment of our professional’s skills and experience with client requirements, resulting in exceptional service and business outcomes.
A lifetime benefit trust (LBT) is a personal, testamentary trust for beneficiaries that are financially dependent due to mental infirmity. Most people are aware that the taxable income inclusion of a RRSP on death can be avoided by rolling it over to a spouse. If the circumstances are appropriate, the…
A couple years ago, one of my blog colleagues wrote on the residency rules regarding tax free saving accounts (TFSA’s). Generally, as an owner of TFSA, if you leave Canada, the accumulated funds may remain in the TFSA without Canadian tax consequences. You can’t make any further contributions but you…
Capital gain splitting on the sale of business interests, owned by family trusts with several beneficiaries, continues to be a valuable tool for tax planning purposes, including the opportunity under certain circumstances to access the super capital gains exemption more than once in such a transaction. However, the beneficiaries of…
Most know that you don’t have to be legally married to have a “spouse” for income tax purposes, although legal marriage will work. If you have been living with someone in a conjugal relationship for 12 months or more regardless of your sex at birth, you will be considered spouses…
CRA will allow post-mortem pipeline transactions to continue, which will allow individuals to avoid double tax on disposition of certain assets.
As we head in to the Fall of 2020, we are quickly approaching the new trust reporting requirements. The new trust reporting rules come into effect with taxation years ending after Dec. 30, 2021. As a reminder to administrators, if a trust continues to be in place past Dec. 31,…
For several years now, clients and contacts (with more frequency of late, and that’s no accident) have been asking me: “Hey Steve, I am turning 65 shortly, do I apply for CPP now or do I wait – what makes more sense financially” Based on analysis provided by experts in…
Our epidemiologists and public heath officers are warning us gently that the dreaded virus will be with us for awhile. Nevertheless, we are all hoping that our economy will recover soon (and to some extent our financial markets have), but it appears asset values in general may be depressed for…
Much has been written in this blog space and many others on this topic. Several times a year (in some years more often than others), we are asked in our practice about to advise on succession or estate planning issues for the family cottage. I was recently alerted to a…