All About Estates

John Oakey

Total 34 Posts Website
National Tax Director for Baker Tilly Canada. John has extensive experience with Canadian corporate and personal income taxes with specialization in the areas of corporate reorganizations, estate planning, succession planning and tax compliance. He also has significant experience dealing with GST/HST issues and U.S. citizen cross-border tax reporting issues.

Intergenerational business transfers – estate planners beware

In an article written on January 10, 2023 by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB),over $2 trillion in business assets could change hands within the next decade as over three-quarters (76 per cent) of small business owners are planning to exit their business. Unfortunately, as the article points out, only…

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Intergenerational business transfers

Since the introduction of the draft legislation for intergenerational business transfers (IBT) on March 28, 2023, the National tax services team at Baker Tilly Canada has reviewed the IBT rules in detail.  For a convenient summary of the proposed IBT rules, please refer to the following document prepared by the…

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Genuine intergenerational transfers

For many years, non-arm’s length intergenerational transfers of corporate businesses were treated inequitably under the Income Tax Act (ITA).  A transfer of a corporate business between non-arm’s length parties[1] resulted in dividend treatment to the vendor instead of capital gains treatment, precluding the ability to claim the capital gains deduction. …

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Private foundations & private company shares

Philanthropic individuals that own their wealth in a private company may want to set-up a charitable legacy by donating some of their shares or debt to a private foundation. Although this sounds like a great idea, caution needs to be exercised. Donations of private company shares or debt to a…

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Flipped property – estates beware

Executors generally liquidate the assets of an estate in a timely manner following an individual’s death. This may include the disposition of the deceased’s primary residence, cottage or rental property (herein referred to as a “housing unit”). An estate may realize a gain on a housing unit if it is…

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Trust and estates beware of the new Underused Housing Tax

The recently enacted Underused Housing Tax Act[i] (UHTA) applies a one per cent tax on the ownership of vacant or underused housing in Canada. Per the Canada Revenue Agency’s (CRA) published notification[ii] on Jan 17, 2023, “the vast majority of Canadian owners of residential property are excluded owners and, therefore,…

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Reversionary trusts – an interesting technicality

Co-author: Rock Lapalme, CPA, CA, TEP (Associate Director of Tax – Baker Tilly Canada) Most practitioners are aware that subsection 75(2) of the Income Tax Act (ITA) may apply to a trust and will attribute all income or loss from a trust’s property back to the person (transferor) from whom…

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Beneficial ownership reporting for trusts – the uncertainty is almost here!

The beneficial ownership reporting for trusts (BORT) rules, originally announced in the 2018 Federal Budget on February 27, 2018, has made its way into the House of Commons. The original draft legislation released by Department of Finance on July 27, 2018 was updated on February 4th and on August 9th…

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Principal residence – deceased vs. estate (Part 2): Time is of the essence

In my previous blog, Principal residence – deceased vs. estate, I discussed the opportunity for an estate to claim a capital loss on a property that was previously the principal residence of the deceased and carry it back to the deceased’s final tax return under subsection 164(6) of the Income…

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Principal residence – deceased vs. estate

The over-heating of the housing market that started in 2021 is starting to slowly cool off as a result of rising interest rates. This cooling of the over-heated housing market has given rise to a potential scenario that was originally addressed by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) in a technical…

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