tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40267762067248750412011-12-27T20:44:09.021-08:00Dwyer Tax Lawyers Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Canadian tax law publications.Dwyer Tax Lawyers Victoria BChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08129201481826089857noreply@blogger.comBlogger501100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4026776206724875041.post-76960266605385998772011-12-27T20:44:00.000-08:002011-12-27T20:44:09.036-08:00

Owning a home –a principal residence -- is a tax shelter that most Canadians aspire to.  Besides providing one with a place to live, home ownership provides the homeowner with a tax-free capital gain for any increase in the value of the home.  Of course, this assumes that the home has always been used exclusively as the private home of the homeowner. The rules for realizing a tax-free capital

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New published conference materials from Blair Dwyer "Proposed Section 56.4 -- Still Draft After All These Years", British Columbia Tax Conference, Vancouver, BC: September 26-27, 2011 (Canadian Tax Foundation). "Allocation of Purchase Price and Transalta", British Columbia Tax Conference, Vancouver, BC: September 26-27, 2011 (Canadian Tax Foundation). "Income Tax Attribution Rules", Conference

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Business and corporate lawyers bang the drum of incorporation for anybody starting a business. Client queries typically focus on the immediate costs (legal fees, filing fees). Assumptions about the benefits of incorporation abound. Let’s look at some of those assumptions. Limited Liability. Since a corporation is a separate legal entity it can enter into contracts and own a business. Supposedly,

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Every year, taxpayers who seek relief from a tax reassessment are denied the result they deserve because of a failure to meet a statutory deadline (or limitation period).  Taxpayers sometimes miss deadlines in the hopes that they will escape the notice of the tax collectors at the Canada Revenue Agency (the “CRA”).  Unfortunately, like the ostrich that buries its head in the sand to escape a

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The CRA has superhuman powers to demand information from all Canadian taxpayers.  Do those super powers get used for good or evil?  Many Canadians fear evil rules the day.  I can say, without hyperbole, that the end of the world is sort of looming up on us.  Mad scientist type CRA employees in Ottawa use their superpowers to conduct experiments on unsuspecting villagers (AKA Canadian taxpayers).

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The start of a new year brings fireworks, champagne, resolutions that will be kept, and those that will be quickly forgotten.  For tax accountants and tax lawyers, it means something else – the start of a new fiscal period.  January 1st starts a new tax year for every Canadian reading this article.With the fresh start the new tax year provides, there is no better resolution to make and keep than

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Low interest rates continue to prevail in the current economy.  The Canada Revenue Agency recently announced that the “prescribed interest rate” will remain at 1% for the fourth quarter of 2010.  While low interest rates do nothing to bolster my savings account, they can give rise to excellent income-splitting opportunities.Let’s say that Mary and Ron are married with 2 young children.  Ron earns

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The Canada Revenue Agency (the “CRA”) has simplified its rules for vehicle logbooks. These new rules should substantially reduce the administrative burden imposed by the CRA’s previous rules. Logbooks are used to support the business use of a vehicle that is used partly for business purposes and partly for personal purposes. For a taxpayer who owns a vehicle, the business use of the vehicle is

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Failure to treat a corporation as a separate legal entity, distinct from its shareholders, can result in a potentially explosive tax bill. Hannah, a young maiden, is the sole director, president and shareholder of Acme Services Ltd. a very successful purveyor of explosives. In honour of her biggest customer, she incorporated Wiley Coyote Holding Ltd. (“WileyCo.”) which then purchased a vacant

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This April, Canadians across the country will claim the Home Renovation Tax Credit in their tax returns. This will be the only year in which the popular tax credit can be claimed, as the Federal Government recently announced that it will not be renewed for 2010. Announced as part of the Federal Government’s “Economic Action Plan”, the Home Renovation Tax Credit is generally understood as an

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I’m a happy guy, mostly. Except for right now. You see, I’ve kept the secret of tax law from you and I feel shame; perhaps not the same kind of shame felt by Tiger, or Dave, or Bill or the whole NBA (except for Steve Nash). After all, their shame comes from a deeper, more spiritual desire to atone for getting caught. I reckon that I have not had intimate relations with too many of the readers of

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A new year invariably brings thoughts of new year resolutions. Notwithstanding the arbitrary nature of January 1, we tend to think it a good time to focus on self-improvement. With that in mind, what simple tax-planning resolutions should be considered for the coming year? Tax Free Savings Accounts. By now, everyone is more or less familiar with the tax-free savings account (the “TFSA”). While

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At Halloween, kids learn pretty quickly that all it takes to get candy from their neighbours are the magic words “trick or treat.” However, every once in a while a trick-or-treater will come across a neighbour who will not give out treats without seeing a trick in return. Tax law is a lot like that annoying neighbour. In tax planning, it is not enough to put magic words in a document. Actions

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Dateline Victoria: Even though the year is only ½ over our provincial and federal governments have been acclaimed as co-winners of the most depressing news headline of 2009 with the announcement: “B.C. moves to 12 per cent HST.” It was hoped that the private sector would challenge for the title this year. “Canucks Still Don’t Win the Cup”, “Lions Still Don’t Win the Cup”, and “Forest Industry in

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The recent economic crisis has seen a marked decline in interest rates. This can give rise to income-splitting opportunities. Say that I earn a significant income but my wife has no income. I can lend money to my wife so that she can invest and earn her own income. Unless my wife annually pays me a minimum amount of annual interest, however, I (not my wife) will have to pay the tax on any

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In my role as a handsome yet shy tax lawyer I sometimes take the time to lean back in my office chair, close my eyes, and marvel at the terrible arrogance of Vancouver Island’s greatest scientist, Mr. Dewey Decimal, the inventor of the “dewey decimal system”. Sadly, a biography detailing his life, the battles he fought to systematize library holdings, and the river of broken hearted librarian

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At the start of an important course in August, one of the members of our foursome pointed out that an accountant in our group had broken Newton’s first law and actually lost weight in the last year. The accountant, lets call him Luckie, no, how about Buck? Yes, Buck (that’s an obscure enough reference) advised that he had taken up jogging, decreased his alcohol intake and for several months had

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Every dark cloud is supposed to have a silver lining. It takes some searching to find any sliver of silver in the economic storm clouds that have been buffeting the world lately, but a sliver there might be. It might be an opportune time to do some estate planning. Canada’s death tax is imposed through the capital gains tax system. On death, one is deemed to dispose of all one’s assets for

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The lawyers I work for -- Blair and Andre -- have this notion that I am not yet completely worldly in the ways of tax law. They think it is fun for me to write about (and you to read about) the interesting tax things I am learning. Personally, I think that they just like editing my work. For example, Andre reviewed this article and noted that the phrase “interesting tax things” is an oxymoron.

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Plus, how George Jones is still useful after 50 years of practicing law (less made up part). Dear reader(s.) It’s summertime and the living is easy. No one wants to read about taxes. Instead, here’s a memento to George Jones Q.C. George helped me get started in tax law. He is celebrating 50 years of practicing law. That is longer than I’ve been alive. I Committed Fraud and Got Assaulted

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Ever since Einstein advanced his general theory of relativity, we have been living with the concept of curved space-time. Eminent physicists tell us that a moving body affects the curvature of space and time - and that the modified curvature of space-time in turn alters the way that the body moves. Indeed, a clock located at the surface of the earth will run ever-so-slightly slower than a clock

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A parent of a disabled child has no bigger fear than the fear of what the child’s future will be after the death of the parent. Of course, addressing this fear involves much more than just financial security for the child. Many adult disabled individuals will need someone – or a network of someones – to assist them in dealing with their disability. Nevertheless, finances will be important and

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Student loans for law school and my undergraduate degree did not completely enslave me for the next 25 years. However, the shackles were clamped firmly on my (and my new husband’s) ankles when we recently purchased our first home. My bosses cackled something like “you’ll never be able to quit work now that the mortgage man has you in his grip” when they found out about the purchase. That was

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 “A great achievement, like great love, takes risk.” Though I make no comment about the love element of that proverb, I feel oddly compelled to discuss risk, achievement (really failure) and deductible tax losses. Taxpayers are often dazed when confronted with the losses incurred by a failing business. For many risk takers, those losses can be deducted against their business income. However,

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A Review Of The General Rules And What To Look Out For With Potential Criminal Investigations Introduction This paper is addressed to practitioners, mostly accountants, who have watched the change in the Canada Revenue Agency’s (“CRA”) approach to audits in the last few years. A senior CRA official described this new approach to me as being similar to the difference between a review engagement

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There are different sources for determining current and expected trends in the Canada Revenue Agency’s (the “CRA’s”) audit procedures in respect of taxpayers. One of these sources is the annual report published by the Auditor General of Canada. In this case, the CRA is the one being audited: the Auditor General examines CRA’s practices and points out the CRA’s foibles, failures and successes.

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In popular mythology, joint accounts are supposed to be simple. In actual fact, they are fraught with difficulty. This year, the Supreme Court of Canada had to pass judgement on two occasions about the ownership of funds in joint accounts. That such a supposedly simple matter ended up in the country’s top court twice in the same year speaks to the uncertainty that surrounds joint accounts. Why

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People may have dual or multiple Wills to cover assets in multiple jurisdictions. For example, someone could have assets in both Canada and Tahiti. Instead of one Will to deal with all the assets, there could be two Wills: one to deal with the Canadian assets and one to deal with the Tahitian assets. This facilitates the smooth and timely administration of an individual’s overall estate.

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Look for profits of small business corporations to rise over the next few years. The increases have started already. It’s all due to government tax policy – but not in the way that you would expect. Traditionally, small business corporations have paid year-end bonuses in order to get profits down to $200,000. Any corporate profit above the $200,000 limit was taxed at a higher corporate tax rate

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When it comes to estate planning, parents often wish to distribute their assets equally among their children. Without proper planning, the actions taken could have the opposite effect and result in unequal distributions. For example, assume the rapper “50 Cent” is widowed and has two children, Nickel and Dime. Assume also that 50 Cent's last few albums did not do so well on the charts, so 50

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On Halloween of 2006, the federal government announced that a new tax regime would apply to income trusts. This caused massive shock waves in public stock markets and no small amount of confusion among beneficiaries of family trusts and other private trusts. The new income trust rules apply only to income trusts that are traded on public stock exchanges. The rules do not in any way affect

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Andre has decided to take a sabbatical from his tax law practice to pursue his lifelong dream of opening a mud wrestling school. Wrestleco is the corporation that will operate the wrestling school, but Andre would also benefit from incorporating a holding company (“Holdco”) as well. Holdco is not an active business company. Rather, it is a company that can be used to hold investments in other

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These days, it is not uncommon for there to be more than one corporation in a family. For example, a husband and wife may both be busy professionals who do business through their own corporations. Or a father may operate a business through one corporation and his son may operate a business through a different corporation. Whenever there is more than one corporation involved in a particular

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The Income Tax Act contains a variety of rules designed to prevent tax avoidance through income splitting. A good example of how these rules usually work is found in subsection 75(2), which limits income splitting through trusts. Benefits of a family trust are well known, they include: creditor-proofing; splitting the lifetime capital gains exemption among the beneficiaries; and providing for

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Imagine if one spouse said to the other: “Honey, you burned lunch again! And it was only a grilled cheese sandwich. I’ll make you a deal: I’ll pay you $1,000 if you agree never to cook again.” Please note this example is by no means a reflection on my ability to make a grilled cheese sandwich. As it turns out, the $1,000 payment received by the culinarily-challenged spouse could be subject to

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New published conference material from Blair Dwyer "Considerations in Drafting Shareholder Agreements", British Columbia Tax Conference. Vancouver, BC: November 21-22, 2005 (Canadian Tax Foundation). Visit the Dwyer Tax Lawyers web site for information about our services and lawyers' profiles. The above article provides general commentary of an educational nature. It does not constitute

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The question that comes up more often than any other (other than questions about my hairstyle) is “how much information do I have to share with an auditor?” Those of you who are clipping copies of my articles will note that I have written about this topic before. Regardless, the smell of rotting leaves in the air reminds me that it’s tax audit season in Victoria. Let’s look at the topic again.

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Most of us are under the impression that we can leave our assets to whomever we want. This is not the case. A British Columbia statute – the Wills Variation Act – gives each child the right to dispute the parent’s will. If the child believes that the will is unfair, the child can ask for a larger portion of the estate without having to prove financial need and without the parent being around to

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A few readers have insinuated that the articles I write for the Business Examiner are obsessed with sex. After all, I have written about the Canada Revenue Agency (“CRA”) VD program, an article entitled “Sinful Thoughts about Martha Stewart” and about the taxation of same sex couples. All I can say in response is that tax law is inherently sensuous – as are the practitioners in the field. Sexy

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Recently, Terry and George (not their real names or a real couple) came to my office asking about the new tax effects of living as gay common law spouses. Using my high powered PC I was able to scan the Income Tax Act and found that the term "spouse" appears over 400 times. To further complicate matters, as a result of the Rosenberg decision, same sex common law partners are given equivalent

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 Superficially, two very recent decisions by the Supreme Court of Canada (Stewart and Walls) appear to have favourably altered the law in respect of the deductibility of business expenses. While the consistency and common sense of the Supreme Court’s decisions should please taxpayers, everyone should take heed that the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency (the “CCRA”) will probably not be forced to

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Picture this scenario: a CCRA auditor knocks on your door and demands to look at all your business records, including your notes and letters from your financial advisors. The auditor then presents you with a list of questions and informs you that failing to answer the questions will result in criminal charges under the Income Tax Act. Can the CCRA act so aggressively? What can you do to protect

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It’s hard to feel sorry for Martha Stewart. Still, let’s remember that she was not convicted of securities fraud. Essentially, she is going to jail because she lied. There’s a kind of Ken Starr/Bill Clinton taint to Martha’s conviction. Lawyers constantly tell their clients to keep their mouths shut and when their clients do speak, we invoke the ancient Latin maxim that I just made up, nunquam

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More and more Canadians are freezing. No, the above statement is not the latest reverse twist on global warming. Instead, it describes a common response to concerns about death taxes. While Canada does not have a death tax per se, the Canadian income tax system has a form of death tax. On death, a person is deemed to dispose of all assets for fair market value. If the asset has an accrued

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Second-guessing may be on its way back, starting in 2005. The federal government has released draft income tax legislation that would have a significant impact on one’s ability to claim tax losses from business ventures or investments. The proposed rules would be effective for 2005 and later taxation years. Under the proposals, a taxpayer would be able to deduct a business or investment loss

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Many wills fail to take advantage of a very powerful estate planning tool – the testamentary trust (also called the will trust). A will can leave property directly to named heirs. Alternatively, the will can direct that assets be held in trust for those heirs. Many people shy away from using a will trust because the trust seems to imply a distrust of the heirs. However, a carefully-structured

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If the Supreme Court of Canada upholds a recent decision of the Federal Court of Appeal, tax authorities may lose the right to collect a tax debt if they let it sit too long. Even if the appeal is overturned, the CCRA still might not collect on the debt in issue. The unintended results of a long-standing CCRA policy are an instructive tale for the public and a sad lesson in irony for one taxpayer

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Many British Columbians have been placing assets in joint ownership as a way of avoiding probate. While joint ownership of assets can be useful in some situations, it is often fraught with hidden dangers. This article attempts to dispel some of the many misunderstandings about joint ownership. As well, the article points out some of the dangers of holding property in that manner. Types of Joint

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Tax planning is an integral part of estate planning. However, tax is merely one of many considerations. We approach estate plans by first trying to identify the needs and desires of the client. After determining the client's overall objectives, we then design and implement a plan that will accomplish those objectives in a tax-efficient manner. The primary objective is always to make the plan

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An individual who is 65 or older may use a special form of living trust as an alternative to a will. The special form of trust is the alter ego trust and the joint spousal trust. Both trusts are very useful for persons who want to avoid probate. Why are these Trusts Special? Normally, a transfer of assets to a trust triggers tax on any increase in the value of the assets since the date of

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