As tax advisers, we regularly advise our clients to enter into various legal relationships in order to help them reduce the taxes they would otherwise incur. In providing such advice, however, we would do well to remind our clients that those legal relationships have more than just tax consequences. Rose v. Rose, 81 O.R. (3d) 349, 2006 CanLII 20856 (ON S.C.) could be the cautionary tale. (more…)
Stock dividends or “dividends satisfied by stock” can be a useful tool for a tax practitioner, but do they create their own tax problems for shareholders of a corporation incorporated under the Business Corporations Act (Ontario) (the “OBCA”)? (more…)
It appears that over the last few years the Ontario Ministry of Finance has been getting tough with the directors of corporations who fail to file Ontario corporate tax returns. Failing to file such a return is a criminal offence, and Finance has not been shy about levying charges when it is feeling neglected by the directors of a corporation. Joe Monaco and I have received a number of calls from directors who are due to appear in court. We do not handle criminal matters, and so we have referred the callers to other counsel. In any event, the message appears to be that a director who ignores a demand to file can expect to find him- or herself in court on criminal charges. Our clients, then, would do well not to ignore such demands.
I returned to the office today after having been away to attend the CICA’s
Advanced Tax Issues for the Owner-Managed Business course in Mont Tremblant, Quebec. The course was intense—there is such a thing as too much discussion about income tax matters after all—but well worth the effort. No doubt something of what I learned will make its way onto this blog at some point.
Usually the Department of Finance waits until closer to Christmas to release draft legislation. Thus Finance wreaks its revenge on tax practitioners by forcing them to read its opaque, sometimes stupefying prose during the Christmas break.
Christmas came early this year, however: Finance just released (yet another round) of draft legislation on non-resident trusts and foreign investment entities. And this time, Finance sounds like it means it! The new legislation will have effect for years that begin after 2006.
You read it in the paper this morning. Now see the details of the Minister of Finance’s plan for income trusts here and hang on to your hats.
