All About Estates

Steven Frye

Total 170 Posts Website
Baker Tilly WM LLP is a leading, independent audit, tax, and business advisory firm based in Vancouver and Toronto, serving clients across Canada. Drawing on well-trained teams across a variety of disciplines, we ensure the alignment of our professional’s skills and experience with client requirements, resulting in exceptional service and business outcomes.

Valuation of Interests in Discretionary trusts and Family Law

These days, it is quite common to find intergenerational wealth transfer to consist of property held in a discretionary family trust whose beneficiaries may or may not have been in marital relationships at the time of the time the trusts were created. A siginifcant number of legal and financials issues…

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Valuation for Estate Planning – Some Hard Lessons

In a recent case in Tax Court, Lauria v HMQ 2021 TCC 66, the taxpayers, both officers and directors of a company held shares in the company as a result of employee share option agreements granted to them.  In early 2006, the company founders decided to pursue an initial public…

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OAS Planning

The Old Age Security (“OAS”) pension is a monthly payment you can get if you are 65 years of age or older. In many cases, Service Canada will automatically enroll you in the year prior to your 65th birthday. To the occasional surprise of some folks, the receipt of OAS…

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SALE OF PERSONAL RESIDENCE AFTER DEATH

Can an estate claim a loss for tax purposes if the estate sells the property for less than what it was valued for at time of death? Hard to imagine such circumstances in this current real estate environment but in the unlikely event it does occur, what are the rules?…

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Digital Assets and RRSP’s, TFSA’s, RESP’s, etc

Do digital assets  e.g. cryptocurrencies (such as bitcoin, ethereum) non-fungible tokens,  qualify as investments in deferred tax vehicles such as Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSP’s), Tax Free Savings Accounts (TFSA’s), Registered Education Savings Plans (RESP’s) and Registered Disability Savings Plan (“RDSP’s). The simple answer is no and maybe. This issue…

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INSURANCE TRACKING SHARES

If a taxpayer owns shares of a corporation and passes away, he or she is deemed to have disposed of their shareholding at fair market value (“FMV”) unless a tax-free rollover is applied (e.g., rollover to a surviving spouse). The disposition of shares may cause a tax liability. In the…

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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…

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When Leaving Your Premises for Medical Reasons and Never Go Back: Need a Plan

I do a lot of work in the insurance industry. Recently, I came across a court case which I thik is a cautionary tale for estate planners and executors. In Gregson v. CAA Insurance., 2021 ONSC 3041, Ms. Gregson was a property owner and name insured on March 17,2017 when…

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Some Ins and Outs of RRSPs & RRIFs Transfers on Death

Generally the RRSP or RRIF of a deceased can be transferred by specific bequest under the terms of the deceased’s will to a qualifying survivor tax-free. A qualifying survivor would be the deceased annuitant spouse or common-law partner or a financially dependent child or grandchild. When payments from a deceased…

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What is a Reasonable Error

Further to my last post, the Canada Revenue Agency (“CRA”) does have the discretion to waive tax penalties on excess (or deemed to be excess) contributions to Tax Free Savings Accounts (“TFSA’s) and Registered Retirement Savings Plans (“RRSP”) if an excess contribution  to a TFSA or RRSP resulted from a…

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