Alter-ego and joint-spousal[1] trusts are inter-vivos trusts commonly used in estate plans to hold legal title of assets for the benefit of the individual and/or their spouse, prior to death, accomplishing some of the following benefits: avoiding probate, providing privacy, expediency of inheritance distribution, and minimization of legal challenge on…
In 1789, Benjamin Franklin, one of the founding fathers of the United States Constitution, provided the world with this great quote, “nothing is certain except death and taxes”. In 2021, John Oakey, the founding father of three Oakey children, is providing the world (or at least anyone reading this blog)…
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 This is a far cry from the original 4,000 words of the Act’s predecessor, Income War Tax Act[1], which was originally enacted as a temporary measure in 1917.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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Everyone knows that you can’t avoid the tax collector, and death is no exception. Under the Canadian Income Tax Act, on the death of an individual subsection 70(5) will trigger a deemed disposition of all the deceased taxpayer’s capital property at fair market value thus taxing any accrued capital gains…
The tax reform of 1987 introduced the term “taxable preferred shares”[1] to curtail the tax advantage for non-taxpaying corporations using preferred share financing over debt financing. The result of this reform subjected the non-taxpaying corporation to a (current) 25 per cent tax on dividends that were paid on taxable preferred…
Use of spousal trust or common-law partner trusts Setting up a spousal or common-law partner trust is a very important decision that generally results from non-tax reasons. One of the common reasons for setting up this type of trust is to protect the surviving spouse from influencers who might try…
