The Limited Partnerships Act (Ontario) is a piece of legislation that allows for the creation of limited partnerships with the characteristics of a general partnership but without joint and several liability for certain ‘limited’ partners.

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Toonie, cc Flickr Carol VanHook, modified, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

One of the most significant regulatory developments of the past few years regards changes to offering memorandum exceptions, and every Canadian business owner and investor should be aware of how these new rules work.   In 2016, a set of new amendments from provincial securities regulators came into force. They introduced an offering memorandum prospectus…

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Deer

Estate freezes are used by family business owners to facilitate the transfer of a business from one generation to the next while taking advantage of available tax deductions and incentives. They are generally structured to minimize capital gains tax and probate fees and to take advantage of dividend sprinkling to income split among family members,…

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Cherry blossoms

Section 85 of the Income Tax Act is a commonly used provision that permits the tax exempt transfer of property to a corporation. This paper provides an overview of the application of the section covering key topics including the general rules of section 85, eligible property, consideration or “boot,” anti-abuse rules, requisite filings and other…

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Mexican Farmer

This paper argues that North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) renegotiation and amendment should be used to define and restrict domestic tax provisions improperly used as indirect trade subsidies or tariffs. In doing so the Canadian foreign affiliate rules and the proposed US border adjustment tax are examined.

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Bee

This paper provides an overview of relevant tax considerations when a Canadian resident is purchasing US real estate and discusses different ways to structure a purchase to minimize tax exposure.

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Blue Bird in Tree

The discretionary family trust is a tool used by some business owners to reduce tax liability and increase flexibility in the family economic unit by facilitating tax-favourable distribution of funds, business succession and estate planning. Using a discretionary family trust to hold shares in a private company can have significant tax and planning benefits. This…

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Pink Flower

The purchase and sale of a private incorporated company in Canada raises a variety of important tax considerations. This paper provides an overview and analysis of such considerations and argues that the clear public policy objective of promoting small business in Canada using provisions of the Income Tax Act has been undermined by an unnecessarily…

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Cherries on Branch

Frequently when restructuring a closely held private corporation shareholders must decide whether to transfer shares from one shareholder to another with a share purchase and sale or to have the corporation redeem (i.e. buy back) the shares from the shareholder, resulting in a reduction in the total number of issued and outstanding shares and increased…

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