When developing estate plans for clients with property of a capital nature (real estate, marketable securities being a couple of examples), one of the questions I get asked more often than not is: How can I avoid probate? Can I just put someone else’s name on a document so it…
Category: Business Succession Planning
Total 54 Posts
Recently, a fellow blogger wrote about the benefit of post-mortem pipeline transactions to avoid double tax on disposition of certain assets. Briefly, a pipeline transaction is a form of transaction whereby the assets of a corporation are distributed to shareholders utilizing the high adjusted cost base resulting from the capital…
The capital dividend account (“CDA”) is a tax free surplus account within a private corporation which gives shareholders designated capital dividends, tax-free. The CDA typically contains the non-taxable portion of the company’s capital gains net of capital losses, capital gains received by other companies, proceeds of life insurance on death…
Recently, the Canada Revenue Agency (“CRA”) was asked to comment on the tax consequences that may result from implementing an estate planning or income splitting arrangement which involves the issuance of shares that entitled the holder to discretionary dividends, for nominal consideration. The CRA was presented with a hypothetical small…
From time to time, we are asked about the tax consequences of transferring life insurance policies particularly in the context of some common (or not-so common) estate and trust planning scenarios involving transfers. As most people know, when a transfer of ownership of a life insurance policy occurs, the transferor…
When an individual taxpayer transfers or loans directly or indirectly property to a corporation, certain provisions of the Income tax Act (“the Act’) may deem the transferor to have received annual interest income on the property at the prescribed rate as set out in the Regulations of the Act. The…
At a recent conference of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners, the Canada Revenue Agency (“CRA”) was asked to respond to certain questions regarding Graduated Rate Estates (GRE’s), in particular around the actual definition of a GRE and its application to a situation where the deceased has more than…
Business Succession Planning for Families and Generations to Come
When the stop-loss rules were enacted, they contained grandfathering provisions that provided relief on dispositions of shares pursuant to “grandfathered agreements” or related to “grandfathered insurance policies.”
It is not unusual to see a corporate beneficiary of a life insurance policy collect the insurance on the death of the insured shareholder. Depending on the circumstances, there are creative ways to use the insurance to benefit such persons as the deceased’s estate or other shareholders of the company.