With the federal government’s expanded trust reporting regime set to take effect later this month, the CRA has granted temporary relief to bare trusts, which will be subject to filing requirements for the first time. Though the CRA indicated there will be no penalties for filing a T3 trust return and the new Schedule 15 beneficial information return for bare trusts after the April 2 deadline, the filing requirement remains in effect.

Four years after being introduced in the 2019 federal budget, and two years after legislation passed allowing insurers to put advanced life deferred annuities (ALDAs) on their shelves, Desjardins became the first to offer the products. The annuities allow clients to transfer up to 25% of the assets held in their RRSP or RRIF (to a maximum of $160,000 in 2023 and $170,000 in 2024) into an ALDA. The annuity defers payments — along with taxes on those payments — until the client is 85. Desjardins said it’s been working on the products for a while, but the combination of higher interest rates and concerns about the cost of living make them more appealing.

Many readers have clients who may be the beneficiaries on a U.S. individual retirement account (IRA). While an IRA is the U.S. equivalent of an RRSP, the tax treatment at death can trip up many Canadian-resident beneficiaries. Columnist Curtis Davis explains the key points.

Finally, more important changes were made to tax measures from the 2023 budget, this time related to intergenerational business transfers. Under Bill C-59, parents looking to sell their business to their children in a tax-efficient manner will no longer need to control the company immediately before the sale. And business owners who sold all or part of their business to their child under the current rules, enacted under Bill C-208 in 2021, won’t be prevented from using the new framework to sell the rest of their business, or another business, to their child. Rudy Mezzetta reports.