Corporate Tax Planning

CRA Report: Canadian Companies Avoided Billions in Taxes

According to a report recently released by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), Canadian corporations avoided around $11 billion in corporate taxes in 2014 (between $2.7 billion and $3.5 billion for small companies, and between $6.7 billion and $7.9 billion for bigger companies). The report marks another measure in a series of actions taken by the CRA to look into tax avoidance by corporate and personal tax-payers in Canada, as we’ve previously written about. Read More

Corporate Tax Planning

The Taxpayer First Act: IRS Reform Legislation Passed by Senate

After initially being introduced more than a year ago, the Taxpayer First Act has been passed by the House and Senate. The legislation includes a variety of provisions intended to modernize the Internal Revenue Service across a wide range of critical areas including information technology, identity theft protection, and customer service. While it remains to be seen what happens next, it is widely believed that President Trump will sign the bill… Read More

Personal Tax Planning

CRA Collects More than $1 Billion After Cracking Down on Real Estate Tax Evaders

We’ve often blogged about tax issues pertaining to real estate, including the fact that fewer home buyers are purchasing homes in Toronto, Vancouver and other hot markets after the introduction of Foreign Buyers’ Taxes and other measures, how buying property from a non-resident of Canada can have significant tax implications, as well as the tax consequences of owning a cottage, among others. Now, the Star is reporting that… Read More

Cross-Border Estate Planning

Handwritten Wills Discovered More than a Year After Aretha Franklin’s Death

The death of Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, rocked the music world last year. As the world mourned the loss of this legendary singer, a legal storm brewed when it initially seemed that she had not left a will or trust delineating what was to happen to her more than $80 million fortune. In the months following her passing it seemed as though the artist’s four sons would be locked in a protracted and… Read More

Personal Tax Planning

Newly Released Statistics Reveal that Fewer Foreign Buyers are Buying Homes in the GTA

We’ve previously blogged about measures being implemented in various jurisdictions across Canada intended to cool down the housing market and address affordability by taxing foreign buyers. Among such measures was a Foreign Buyer’s Tax introduced in British Columbia (and separately also within Vancouver). We also blogged about creative ways that foreign buyers have been attempting to circumvent measures such as the Foreign Buyer’s Tax. Much like in BC, Ontario has its own foreign… Read More