Global

Details

  • Service: Tax, International Corporate Tax, International Executive Services, Global Compliance Management Services
  • Type: Regulatory update
  • Date: 9/18/2012

Canada - Capital gains deduction for trust beneficiary (holding-period test) 

September 18: The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), in a recent technical interpretation, concluded that when an individual has been a beneficiary of an inter vivos trust for less than 24 months, that person may still be able to claim the capital gains deduction for a taxable capital gain designated by the trust.

The CRA noted that the deduction may be available when the trust meets the 24-month holding period (as discussed in the definition of "qualified small business corporation" (QSBC) share).

Summary

The CRA considered the following facts:


  • An inter vivos trust is resident in Canada, and the trustee has the power to allocate income or capital to the beneficiaries as required.
  • The trust has owned QSBC shares of a Canadian-controlled private corporation for several years.
  • The trustee intends to have the trust sell the shares and designate the resulting net taxable capital gain to a Canadian resident individual who has only been a capital and income beneficiary of the trust for 12 months prior to the share sale.

The issue is whether a taxpayer / beneficiary who has only been a beneficiary of the trust for 12 months prior to the sale could claim a capital gains deduction in these circumstances.


The CRA commented that the determination of an individual's ability to claim a capital gains deduction remains a question of fact.


However, the CRA found that as long as the particular personal trust satisfies the holding-period test, the designated beneficiary would not necessarily be precluded from claiming a capital gains deduction solely because that person was not a beneficiary of the trust throughout the entire 24-month period before the trust sold the QSBC shares.


Read a September 2012 report prepared by the KPMG member firm in Canada: Trust Beneficiary Doesn't Need to Meet CGE Holding Period Test




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