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…
The Dutch House, by Ann Patchett, is an excellent read. However, for those in the estate planning profession, it is also a reflection on what goes wrong when insufficient or no estate planning occurs.
Capital gain splitting on the sale of business interests, owned by family trusts with several beneficiaries, continues to be a valuable tool for tax planning purposes, including the opportunity under certain circumstances to access the super capital gains exemption more than once in such a transaction. However, the beneficiaries of…
CRA will allow post-mortem pipeline transactions to continue, which will allow individuals to avoid double tax on disposition of certain assets.
Our epidemiologists and public heath officers are warning us gently that the dreaded virus will be with us for awhile. Nevertheless, we are all hoping that our economy will recover soon (and to some extent our financial markets have), but it appears asset values in general may be depressed for…
In past blogs, we discussed income splitting arrangements available to individuals who wish to loan funds to his/her lower income spouse or adult child, or in the case of minor children, a discretionary family trust. Such loans would be used to invest in income producing properties such as marketable securities,…
The freezing of current share value so that your chosen successors can easily participate in the future growth of your enterprise is a common estate planning technique. What if the value of the frozen shares now exceeds the value of the enterprise as a whole? I wrote about this sometime…
Court of Appeal interpreted an option to purchase a business set out in the deceased’s last will.
In Trower v. the Queen, 2019 TCC 77, the Company was privately held by the taxpayer and her spouse (49% and 51% respectively) until the taxpayer ceased to be shareholder in the Fall of 2016, pursuant to a separation agreement between the spouses. The company prepared and filed a T5…
In Canada (A.G.) v Nortip Development 2019 NLCA 34, a company fell behind in remitting payroll withholdings and related amounts for several periods over a two-year period to the Canada Revenue Agency (“CRA”). Around the same time, a property with a mortgage owned by the same company, was destroyed by…
