Understanding Taxes Payable at Death in Canada
Discover how taxes impact your estate in Canada and explore strategies to minimize the burden. Learn how to manage earned income, deemed disposition, and withdrawals at death to preserve your legacy.
Discover how taxes impact your estate in Canada and explore strategies to minimize the burden. Learn how to manage earned income, deemed disposition, and withdrawals at death to preserve your legacy.
Business owners deal with a unique set of challenges. One of these challenges includes succession planning. A succession plan is the process of the transfer of ownership, management and interest of a business. When should a business owner have a succession plan? A succession plan is required through the survival, growth and maturity stage of a business. All business owners, partners and shareholders should have a plan in place during these business stages.
On April 16, 2024, Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, Chrystia Freeland, presented the federal budget.
While there are no changes to federal personal or corporate tax rates, the budget introduces:
• An increase in the portion of capital gains subject to tax, rising from 50% to 66.67%, starting June 25, 2024. However, individual gains up to $250,000 annually will retain the 50% rate.
• The lifetime exemption limit for capital gains has been raised to $1.25 million. Additionally, a new one-third inclusion rate is set for up to $2 million in capital gains for entrepreneurs.
• The budget confirms the alternative minimum tax changes planned for January 1, 2024 but lessens their impact on charitable contributions.
• This year’s budget emphasizes making housing more affordable. It provides incentives for building rental properties specifically designed for long-term tenants.
• Introduces new support measures to aid people buying their first homes.
• Costs for specific patents and tech equipment and software can now be written off immediately.
• Canada carbon rebate for small business
When looking to save money in a tax-efficient manner, Tax-Free Savings Accounts (TFSA) and Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSP) can offer significant tax benefits. The main difference between the two is that TFSAs are ideal for short-term goals, such as saving for a down payment on a house or a vacation, as its growth is entirely tax-free, while RRSPs are more suitable for long-term goals such as retirement. When comparing deposit differences, TFSAs have a limit of $7,000 for the current year, while RRSPs have a limit of 18% of your pre-tax income from the previous year, with a maximum limit of $31,560. In terms of withdrawals, TFSAs have no conversion requirements and withdrawals are tax-free, while RRSPs must be converted to a Registered Retirement Income Fund (RRIF) at age 71 and withdrawals are taxed as income.
Blended families – where two people get married but have children from previous relationships – are becoming more common. On top of the day-to-day challenges of blending a family, new spouses also have to figure out how to plan their estates, so everyone is properly taken care of.
We cover all of the following a blended family must consider while estate planning:
• Sharing the Family Home
• Make the Most of a Registered Retirement Savings Plan
• How to Share Non-Registered Investments and Other Assets
• Why It’s Important to Select a Good Trustee
• The Advantages of Life Insurance for Blended Family Planning
What happens when the children grow up and they are no longer dependent on their parents? What happens to your other “baby”- the business? Estate planning for business owners deals with the personal and business assets.
An estate freeze can be an integral part of your estate planning strategy. The purpose of an estate freeze is to transfer any future increase in your business’s value (generally shares) that you own to someone else.
It’s a great time to review your business finances now that we are nearing year-end. We have listed some of the critical areas to consider and provide you with some helpful guidelines to make sure that you cover all the essentials. We have divided our tax planning tips into four sections:
– Year-end tax checklist
– Remuneration
– Business tax
– Estate
Business owners can be busy… they’re busy running a successful business, wearing lots of hats and making a ton of decisions. We’ve put together a list of 10 essential decisions for every business owner to consider.
Now that we are nearing year end, it’s a good time to review your finances. With the federal election over and no major tax personal tax changes for this year, 2019 is a good year to make sure you are effectively tax planning.
Mutual funds, approved exempt market products and/or exchange traded funds are offered through Investia Financial Services Inc.
Insurance products are offered through PPI Management Inc., a national licensed insurance marketing organization that support independent advisors with their business, and through multiple insurance companies.