The potential pitfalls of using joint ownership of property between parent and adult child as a means of reducing exposure to estate administration tax has received increased attention in recent years, in particular since the Pecore decision. Nevertheless, it is still common (likely the norm) to see parent-adult child joint…

Section 13 of the Charities Accounting Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. C.10, as amended (“CAA”), is a useful tool for both estates and charities practitioners alike. The section provides that certain draft orders or judgments that could have been made by the Superior Court of Justice will be deemed to be…

In my last blog I noted that at the recent STEP conference, representatives of the Canada Revenue Agency confirmed that the introduction of the new qualified disability trust (“QDT”) rules had not restricted the ability to use the preferred beneficiary election, provided the requirements for the preferred beneficiary election are…

As fellow bloggers have noted, the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners held its annual national conference in Toronto on June 9th and 10th. Each year, one of the most anticipated sessions is the Canada Revenue Agency (“CRA”) Roundtable. Question No. 4 at this year’s Roundtable concerned the interplay between…

I have previously blogged about the new “qualified disability trust” (“QDT”), which is one of two exceptions to the new rule, effective January 1, 2016, that income accumulated in a testamentary trust is taxed at the highest marginal rate. In this blog I will focus on the requirement that a…

Section 9 of the Ontario Estates Administration Act (“EAA”) is often referred to as the “automatic vesting” provision, since it provides for the automatic vesting of real property in certain circumstances. Specifically, subsection 9(1) provides that real property that is not “disposed of, conveyed to, divided or distributed” among the…

My colleague, Katie Ionson, previously blogged about the new RDSP Income Tax Information Circular IC99-1R1, which the CRA released on February 10, 2016. The Circular contains useful guidance on a number of issues, including the requirements for an RDSP to be registered under the Income Tax Act (“ITA”). While some…

I previously blogged about the new qualified disability trust (“QDT”), which became law on January 1, 2016. In my previous blog, I left a discussion of the “recovery tax” for another day. Looking outside as I write this, it appears the proverbial rainy day has arrived!