The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) will occasionally post requests to help improve the Agency’s processing efficiency. Recent posts caught my attention given their application to returns for deceased individuals. Date of Death The CRA noticed that tax preparers occasionally include a deceased person’s date of death on the living spouse’s…
The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) recently released a translated technical interpretation with helpful guidance on the tax treatment of a death benefit payment in certain specific situations. A death benefit is income of either the estate or the beneficiary who receives it. Up to $10,000 of the total of all…
On occasion, the personal representative of an estate may have to incur costs to either settle or disclose a matter with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). In a translated technical interpretation, the CRA provided some of its own guidance on how to navigate the relevant rule in the Income Tax…
Both alter ego and joint partner trusts (the trust) allow a settlor to transfer capital assets into the trust on a tax-deferred basis if the following conditions are met: The trust is created after 1999. The settlor is at least 65 at the time of creation. In the case of…
The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) was asked to consider allowing more time to allow for the application of a common post-mortem planning rule in those situations where delays in the probate process have caused a delay in the timing of the disposition of the properties of an estate. The request concerns…
Further tax payment deadline extensions and interest relief on tax debt are on offer by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) during the COVID-19 pandemic. As announced on July 27, 2020, trusts now have until September 30, 2020, to pay income tax balances and instalments that would have otherwise been due…
The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) was asked whether a Canadian-resident individual is required to file Form T1135 (Foreign Income Verification Statement) in respect of their interest in a US pension plan. The foreign property reporting rules are in section 233.3 of the Income Tax Act (ITA). Generally, these rules require…
The pension splitting exception will allow a spouse who is 65 years of age to split income with his or her spouse or common law partner if the split income would be an excluded amount of the spouse who is 65 years old. These deeming provisions provide an opportunity to…
Since 2018, the tax on split income (TOSI) rules have impacted common estate planning practices. While much of the TOSI focus is on planning during one’s lifetime, post-mortem planning strategies have also been affected. It follows that a post-mortem planning strategy must now be considered in light of TOSI, as…
At a recent tax conference, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) shared its view on reporting a post-mortem loss incurred by a trust in the first year following the death of the last life interest beneficiary (the settlor in the case of an alter ego trust, and the last to die…