Baker Tilly Canada

Tax planning in uncertain times

Tax planning can be very complicated with an Income Tax Act (“Act”) consisting of over 1.1 million words. This is a far cry from the original 4,000 words of the Act’s predecessor, Income War Tax Act[1], which was originally enacted as a temporary measure in 1917. The more than 3,000 pages contained in the Act is the legislation that governs our Canadian income tax system that is supplemented by precedent….

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Canada Revenue Agency, Estate Planning, Practice Management, Tax Issues

AMENDING TAX ELECTIONS AFTER THE FACT

The rollover provisions of the Income Tax Act, under subsection 85, permit a taxpayer to elect to transfer “eligible property” to a taxable Canadian corporation in exchange for consideration that includes at least one share of the corporation. “Eligible property” includes most capital property, Canadian or foreign resource property, eligible capital property and inventory, other than inventory that is real property. Where the taxpayer and the corporation agree upon an….

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Canada Revenue Agency, Estate Planning, Investments, Small Business, Tax Issues, Trusts, Uncategorized

The Finance Strikes Back

As the story of Bill C-208 (intergenerational transfers) continues to evolve, I can’t help but make analogies to my favorite childhood trilogy.  The Star Wars trilogy was a dominating force in my childhood.  I lived and breathed the interesting stories produced by this vast universe created by George Lucas. In comparison to Star Wars, our vast tax universe also produces interesting stories. The latest story involves the private member’s bill,….

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Business Succession Planning, Tax Issues

Company purification – don’t take the short-cut

If a business is successful, it will eventually have excess cash retained in the company that is not necessary for the operations of the business.  Two options for this cash is to distribute the excess to the shareholder(s) as a dividend, but that would result in personal tax being paid by the shareholder on the dividend or the company can simply retain the excess cash and invest it in non-business-related….

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Tax Issues

No plan is usually not the best plan

When faced with making decisions, doing nothing is an option and for some decisions that could be the most viable option. However, In the world of estate planning, doing nothing rarely turns out to be a good idea. We can all point to an example of executing a deceased’s estate gone wrong.  Most times a disastrous estate situation could have been avoided or mitigated if the deceased would have done….

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Estate Planning, Wills

Bill C-208 the race to the finish line

Bill C-208 (Bill), “an Act to amend the Income Tax Act (transfer of small business or family farm or fishing corporation)” is a private member’s bill introduced by Conservative MP, Larry Maguire[1] on February 19, 2020.  The purpose of this Bill is to allow share capital restructurings and inter-generational transfers within a family unit, which are sometimes caught by two prominent anti-avoidance provisions in the Income Tax Act (ITA), Sections 55….

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Business Succession Planning, Tax Issues
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