In this week's edition

With the recent increase to the capital gains inclusion rate, claiming all available capital losses becomes an increasingly important tax consideration. Melissa Shin reports on a little-known election that would help investors left holding worthless shares.

On March 28, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) said it wouldn’t require bare trusts to file a T3 return, including Schedule 15, for the 2023 tax year (unless the agency directly requested a taxpayer to do so). Given how close that announcement was to the filing deadline, the Taxpayers’ Ombudsperson is examining whether the CRA respected taxpayers’ rights in its administration of bare trust filing requirements for the 2023 tax year.

Social engineering attacks aim to manipulate people — including advisors — into sharing confidential information. To address the threat of such attacks, wealth management firms often implement stringent security policies. While those measures can mean reduced convenience for advisors, they also help avoid client harm and reputational damage.

The Department of Finance recently ended a consultation on how to simplify and modernize the definition of “qualified investments” — those allowed in registered plans such as RRSPs, TFSAs, RRIFs and RESPs. In their submissions, the Investment Industry Association of Canada and the Portfolio Management Association of Canada made several suggestions. These included, respectively, not holding plan issuers liable when a qualified investment becomes non-qualified while held in a plan and allowing target-date funds to invest in securities beyond those traded on a designated stock exchange.