Steven Frye

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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.

Time to Refreeze: Redux

The freezing of current share value so that your chosen successors can easily participate in the future growth of your enterprise is a common estate planning technique. What if the value of the frozen shares now exceeds the value of the enterprise as a whole? I wrote about this sometime ago and I think the current economic circumstances create an opportunity to revisit it. The Covid-19 crisis has lead to….

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Business Succession Planning, Canada Revenue Agency, Estate Planning, In the News, Investments, Property, Real Estate, Small Business, Succession Planning, Tax Issues, Trusts, Uncategorized, Wills

Clearance Certificates

An executor, as the legal representative of the estate, is required to obtain a clearance certificate before distributing property that they control. Where the executor fails to obtain a clearance certificate, they are liable for any unpaid amounts in respect of any property distributed. Some will argue that not every estate needs a tax clearance certificate, but a recent court case highlights the kind of trouble an executor can get….

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Canada Revenue Agency, Estate Litigation, Executors, Passing Of Trustees’ and Executors’ Accounts, Tax Issues, Uncategorized, Wills

HOME BUYER’S PLAN AND TAX CREDITS AFTER THE DEATH OF A SPOUSE

During her marriage, a spouse inhabited a home wholly owned by her husband. He passed away and the house became an asset of the estate. Subsequent to her husband’s passing, the spouse purchased a new property. She had not re-married or entered into any common law partnership. Is the spouse (taxpayer) be eligible for the home buyers plan and the first-time home buyers’ tax credit? In a recent technical interpretation….

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Canada Revenue Agency, Estate Administration, Investments, Joint Tenancy, Real Estate, Tax Issues, Uncategorized

Revocation of Wills

In the recent case of Sokalski Estate (Re), 2019 ABQB 285, the deceased left two wills one in 2011 and the other 2017, without expressly revoking the earlier one. The estate applied to the Court for a determination regarding which document or documents form the deceased Mr. Sokalski’s last will. The applicant representatives of the Estate were the deceased’s sons.The respondents were the deceased’s daughters. The parties were unable to….

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Contested wills, Estate Administration, Estate Administration and Probate Applications, Estate Litigation, Executors, Family Conflict, Investments, Uncategorized, Wills

A note on Crypto Currency

Wikipedia defines cryptocurrency (or crypto currency) as a digital asset designed to work as a medium of exchange that uses strong cryptography to secure financial transactions, control the creation of additional units, and verify the transfer of assets. Cryptocurrencies use decentralized control as opposed to centralized digital currency and central banking systems. The decentralized control of each cryptocurrency works through distributed ledger technology, typically a blockchain, that serves as a….

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Canada Revenue Agency, Estate Administration, Estate Administration and Probate Applications, Estate Litigation, Estate Planning, In the News, Investments, Trusts, Uncategorized, Wills

Secret Trusts

Secret and trusts are essentially trust arrangements made between a testator and a trustee, without written disclosure or agreement of the terms of the arrangement, but where an understanding exists between the parties. Based on precedent in case law, the essential elements of a secret trust are: • An intent by the testator to subject the trustee to an obligation in favour of a beneficiary; • Communication of that intent….

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Estate Administration, Estate Litigation, Liability, Resulting Trust, Trustee, Trusts, Uncategorized, Wills
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