Gifting and Leaving Money to Your Grandchild (Part 2)

My previous blog post discussed the concept of  deemed dispositions when making gifts to grandchildren while alive and upon death. It also covered the issues of income attribution and ensuring family law is considered when making or providing for gifts. 

Today, I discuss gifting by grandparents using a Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP), Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA), or Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP). I also briefly discuss estate planning considerations for grandparents.

RESPs

RESPs are great vehicles to save for a grandchild’s education. A grandparent can contribute under their own plan for a grandchild, but it is very important for the grandparent to ensure they are not duplicating contributions made by the child’s parents.

If both a grandparent and parent have plans for a child, they must coordinate their contributions on a yearly basis. If the grandparent intends to make the annual contribution, the child's parents may not even want to bother opening a RESP for that child. Alternatively, the grandparent can just gift the yearly contribution to the parent, who then puts the money into the RESP they have set up for the child.

RESPs upon the death of a grandparent

If a grandparent (subscriber) dies, things can get very complex and deserve their own blog post.

However, here are two key things to consider in your estate planning:

1. Ensuring you have a successor subscriber so the plan can continue, or the RESP may become part of your estate.
2. A clause in your will setting out your intentions for the RESP, including whether you wish to have your estate continue making the RESP contributions.

Takeaway #1 – If you set up a RESP for your grandchild, ensure their parents don’t already have a plan. If they do have a RESP, communicate each year with them. Ensure your estate planning considers the RESP.

TFSAs

TFSAs are a great tax-free option to help your grandchildren (who are 18 or over) save for education, a house, a car, vacation or even retirement (if they can look that far ahead). 

Care should be taken to ensure you do not over-contribute to the TFSA, as penalties will apply.

TFSAs are far simpler than RESPs when giving money to a grandchild. The TFSA is set up in your grandchild’s name, so you don’t have the estate concerns you have as an RESP subscriber; however, you should not make direct contributions (you should gift the money to your grandchild to contribute), and you have no control over the TFSA and what your grandchild does with the money in their TFSA. If they wanted to, they could cash in the TFSA and travel the world - and you would have no say.

A grandparent does not require a clause in their will to deal with the TFSA. A grandparent could have a clause in their will to have their estate continue making yearly gifts equal to the TFSA contribution limit.

Takeaway #2 – Gifts to fund a TFSA for a child 18 and over are tax efficient and a great way to assist them in funding their education, home purchase or retirement savings. Just be aware, they can decide to use the money for a fancy sports car or vacation and you have no say in the matter.

RRSPs

For grandparents making gifts to grandchildren, an RRSP is like a TFSA in that it is set up in the grandchild’s name, the grandparent has no control over the RRSP. A gift for a RRSP should be on the understanding the grandchild will not touch the money until their retirement. But a grandparent has no way to enforce this.

RRSPs can be set up at any age, as long as the child has earned income and a social insurance number. Practically, there is limited tax savings value in an RRSP when a child has minimal taxable income (although there is a tax-deferred component and it can assist in teaching a grandchild about saving for retirement). A TFSA is often the better choice if you plan to gift $6,000 a year or less to your grandchild.

If you intend to gift more than $6,000 (assuming the first $6,000 goes to a TFSA), an RRSP contribution can be made equal to your grandchild’s RRSP contribution limit. It often makes sense for the grandchild to not claim an RRSP deduction until their income is higher and carry forward the contribution until they can obtain a larger tax refund. In any case, the RRSP money grows tax-free.

The grandparent and child need to ensure they do not exceed the child’s RRSP contribution limit, or penalties may apply.

Grandparent gifting to RRSP: Example

An example may help clarify the above.

Say a child works part-time, is over 18 (so has no attribution concerns) and makes $15,000 to $20,000 a year. The child’s RRSP contribution room is 18% of their annual income, so let’s say $3,000 a year for simplicity's sake (they may also have contribution room from prior years). The grandparent gives the grandchild $3,000 a year for five years to contribute to their RRSP while the child is in university. There would likely be little to no tax refund if the RRSP contribution is claimed each year while the grandchild is in school, due to tuition credits. 

But if the grandchild works full-time in the year after graduation and makes, say, $60,000, they could claim the RRSP carryforward deduction in Year 6 and obtain a refund – likely somewhere in the $4,000 to $5,000 range, while getting the tax-free growth on their RRSP assets from Day 1.

Takeaway #3 – Gifting money for a grandchild’s RRSP will typically be your last option (likely better to gift to RESP or TFSA).

Your will

A will is best discussed with an estate specialist. I will just provide a few considerations:

1. If you are leaving money to your grandchildren in your will, ensure you consider additional grandchildren that could be born after you draft your will or even after you pass away.
2. Is the bequest going to be outright or in trust? You may wish an outright gift for smaller bequests and if the grandchildren are older. If the grandchildren are younger or the bequest is large, a trust (a formal properly executed trust) will likely provide greater protection from the whims of an immature child.
3. Most legal writers suggest grandparents consider their own children’s financial circumstances, as you do not want to skip a generation from your children to your grandchildren when your own children may need the money and unintentionally create resentment with their own children.
4. At what age do you want your grandchildren to have access to the inheritance?

Takeaway #4 – There are multiple trips and traps in leaving bequests to your grandchildren. It is imperative you have an experienced estate lawyer draft your will if you are leaving substantial assets to your grandchildren.

I am finally done, and now I’ll catch my breath. Somehow one brief blog turned into two parts and almost 2,000 words. But long-time readers will not be surprised, I have never been one to buy into the conventional wisdom of keeping everything short because people have short attention spans. Anyways, stepping off my soapbox, grandparents: please consider the various issues I have discussed when considering gifts and bequests to your grandchildren.

The content on this blog has been carefully prepared, but it has been written in general terms and should be seen as broad guidance only. The blog cannot be relied upon to cover specific situations and you should not act, or refrain from acting, upon the information contained therein without obtaining specific professional advice. Please contact BDO Canada LLP to discuss these matters in the context of your particular circumstances. BDO Canada LLP, its partners, employees and agents do not accept or assume any liability or duty of care for any loss arising from any action taken or not taken by anyone in reliance on the information on this blog or for any decision based on it.

Please note the blog posts are time sensitive and subject to changes in legislation.

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Tax Efficient Investing - Part 2

Two weeks ago I discussed tax efficient investing within a TFSA. Today I conclude this discussion with a review of tax-efficient investing options within non-registered accounts, TFSAs and RESPS.

Non-registered Account

To ensure we are on the same wavelength, when I say non-registered, I am talking about taxable investment accounts you hold, excluding RRSPs, RESPs and TFSAs.

I don’t want to be repetitive, so I will not again list the non-tax considerations one must account for before determining the most tax efficient use of this account (see these considerations in the TFSA discussion from the first post). However, one specific consideration applicable to non-registered accounts is your capital loss carryforward balance. If you have capital loss carryforwards, you will want to use these losses against future capital gains and have a definite bias towards holding equities that will produce capital gains.

For non-registered accounts, since they are taxable at your marginal rate, you will typically want to hold investments that are subject to the lowest tax rates.

1. Equities – since capital gains are subject to a 50% inclusion, you typically will prefer to hold your equities in your non-registered account, as they result in the lowest tax cost, say 26% or so at the highest marginal rate, as opposed to say interest instruments that would result in a 53% tax cost.

2. Canadian Dividends – since you receive a dividend tax credit for both eligible and non-eligible dividends, you will have a tax preference to use the dividend tax credits in your non-registered account or you lose the credit. Eligible dividends which come typically from public corporations are preferable to non-eligible dividends.

3. REIT – since you receive tax-free distributions of ROC and this ROC reduces your ACB resulting in larger capital gains, you may wish to hold a REITs or ROC type investment in a non-registered account. You will consider this if you are willing to deal with tracking the ACB (see the first post) and the REIT is not allocating significant other income that is subject to the high marginal rates. Note, if the ROC is not large or declining, you will likely not want to hold REITs in your non-registered account and may wish to hold them in your TFSA in any event to avoid the "tracking hassle".

RRSP

For registered accounts, since the income is earned tax-free before you start withdrawing from your RRSP/RRIF, you will typically want to hold investments that have the highest tax rates attached to them. In general you will not want to hold high growth equity, since even though large gains will be deferred and can compound tax-free within the RRSP, when you withdraw the funds, the 26% capital gain rate essentially becomes 53% if you withdraw money from your RRSP/RRIF at the high rate of tax. Thus you will have effectively lost the 50% tax savings associated with a capital gain (although you will have deferred the tax possibly many years).

1. U.S. Stocks that Pay Dividends – there is no foreign withholding tax on U.S. dividends paid to an RRSP, so an RRSP is very tax effective for such dividends. US dividends received by a non-registered account are taxed as regular income (as noted in the first post on this topic, US dividends in a TFSA are subject to the tax withholding with no tax credit benefit). Keep in mind, this tax treatment is specific to U.S. stocks and does not necessarily apply to other countries.

2. Fixed Income – because these investments are fully taxable, the tax savings are maximized in an RRSP. Conceptually, using fixed income prevents your RRSP from growing larger, since you do not have as large an equity component. However, in a balanced overall portfolio, you will likely have held that part of your equity component in lower taxing non-registered or TFSA accounts, so overall your total retirement pie should be somewhat equivalent.

Thus, when you start making RRSP withdrawals for your retirement, you will likely have a more effective taxable mix coming from smaller RRSP balance (that may be taxable at your highest marginal rate) with a mix of retirement funds that grew more tax effectively in your TFSA (that can be withdrawn tax free) and/or non-registered account, that may result in a lower overall tax cost at retirement.

RESP

These accounts have a singular purpose -- funding your children’s education. Thus, many experts suggest these accounts should have a more conservative bent. However, if you start the account for your child or children, at a very early age, you will be able to invest through one or two investment cycles and a well balance diversified portfolio may make sense, but speak to your investment advisor for their input.

As I stated at the outset of this series, tax and investment decisions should not be made in isolation, and tax efficiency must be considered in context of portfolio risk management and asset allocation. Once you have considered these issues, then the tax efficiencies above should be considered.

The above in not intended to provide investment advice. Please speak to your investment advisor.

This site provides general information on various tax issues and other matters. The information is not intended to constitute professional advice and may not be appropriate for a specific individual or fact situation. It is written by the author solely in their personal capacity and cannot be attributed to the accounting firm with which they are affiliated. It is not intended to constitute professional advice, and neither the author nor the firm with which the author is associated shall accept any liability in respect of any reliance on the information contained herein. Readers should always consult with their professional advisors in respect of their particular situation. Please note the blog post is time sensitive and subject to changes in legislation or law.

Tax Efficient Investing - Part 1

A couple of months ago, Rob Carrick of The Globe and Mail interviewed me for an article he was writing on Tax-Free Savings Accounts (“TFSAs”). Specifically, he was asking me whether Real Estate Investment Trusts (“REITs”) and other Return of Capital (“ROC”) type instruments should be purchased in a TFSA. I will leave you in suspense for a while on the answer to that question… but Rob’s question made me realize I had never written a blog post solely dedicated to the tax efficiency of the four main types of accounts that Canadians hold:

1. TFSA

2. Non-registered Account

3. Registered Retirement Savings Plan (“RRSP”)

4. Registered Education Savings Plan (“RESP”)

Today and next week I will discuss this topic.

Overall Conclusion

Once I had completed the initial draft for this post, I reflected upon what I had written and I came to two conclusions:

1. Tax and investment decisions should not be made in isolation

2. Tax efficiency must be considered in context of portfolio risk management and asset allocation

Please keep these in mind as I discuss the individual accounts.

TFSA

A perfect example of why I say tax efficiency must be considered in context of portfolio risk management and asset allocation is a TFSA.

There are several non-tax considerations one must account for before determining the most tax efficient use of this account. These include:

· Age – with a longer time horizon, you may want a higher exposure to Canadian equities to maximize your investment returns.

· Overall Portfolio Allocation – for all the accounts discussed, you must ensure tax efficiency in the context of your overall portfolio allocation.

For example, let’s say your portfolio allocation for REITs is 4%. If you decide a REIT is the most efficient investment for your TFSA and invest 3% of your overall portfolio in REITs within your TFSA, you must ensure you only have 1% weight to REITs in all your accounts.

· Risk – you may have read one of the articles about Canadians who have already grown their TFSAs to several hundred thousand dollars and how some are being audited by the CRA. Ignoring those who manipulated their TFSAs, many people with high value TFSAs achieved their growth through purchasing speculative or high growth equities within their TFSAs. But you must also consider that high growth equities can also produce large capital losses and those losses are lost within a TFSA.

· Need – where your TFSA is acting in part or whole as an emergency fund or you have a low risk tolerance, you will likely be considering only liquid and low risk options such as money market and maybe bonds.

As can be observed above, your selection of investment type for your TFSA may be subject to multiple non-tax considerations. However, for purposes of this post, let’s assume you just want to know what types of investments are generally the most tax efficient for a TFSA. I discuss these below:

1. High Yield Income – while these investments are far and few between; if you were able to invest in a high-yield mortgage fund or something similar, you would be saving around 53% in tax at the highest marginal rate.

2. Stocks – whether you are willing to take the risk and purchase high growth equity or want more stable Canadian equities that pay dividends, both these investment types would save you up to 26% in tax at the highest marginal tax rate; however, as noted above, any capital losses are wasted. One could argue a TFSA is not the best place for equities since you only save 26% versus 53%. However, equities may provide a return of a significant quantum that has many years to grow and compound the “large” tax-free gain.

3. REIT – technically, there is no correct answer here. You have to review what proportion of your investment return is ROC vs income, dividend or capital gain. If you have a high ROC, you are giving up a tax-free return that can be received elsewhere by holding your REIT in a TFSA (it should be noted that the ROC reduces the adjusted cost base (“ACB”) of the REIT and creates a larger capital gain down the road). So while a REIT is a tax efficient investment within a TFSA, an argument could also be made that a REIT may also be tax effective in a non-registered account. Yet, surprisingly, for many people, the overriding reason they put REITs in their TFSAs is not the tax savings, but the ability to relieve themselves from the tax administration hassle of tracking the ACB of a stock that has a ROC.

You will typically not want to hold a foreign stock (especially a US stock) that pays dividends in a TFSA, since foreign tax will be withheld and you will not be able to take advantage of the foreign tax credit for that tax withheld in your TFSA.

The above in not intended to provide investment advice. Please speak to your investment advisor.

Next week I will conclude this discussion, when I review tax efficiency within non-registered accounts and RRSPs and RESPs.

This site provides general information on various tax issues and other matters. The information is not intended to constitute professional advice and may not be appropriate for a specific individual or fact situation. It is written by the author solely in their personal capacity and cannot be attributed to the accounting firm with which they are affiliated. It is not intended to constitute professional advice, and neither the author nor the firm with which the author is associated shall accept any liability in respect of any reliance on the information contained herein. Readers should always consult with their professional advisors in respect of their particular situation. Please note the blog post is time sensitive and subject to changes in legislation or law.

Should You Fund Your TFSA With Corporate Funds?

Many business owners and professionals operate through corporations. One of the main benefits of using a corporation is the deferral of income tax (over 34% in some provinces) and as a result, many business owners attempt to leave as much money in their corporation as possible (in essence to build their own mini corporate retirement fund).

When Tax-Free Savings Plans (“TFSAs”) were introduced in 2009, most small business owners typically had a choice of two pots of money to fund their annual $5,000 contribution limit. They could fund their TFSA with non-registered money (savings accounts or brokerage accounts) or withdraw funds from their corporations.

Initially, most chose to fund their TFSAs with non-registered money, since this money had already been taxed. However, as time marched on, many people exhausted their non-registered money in funding their TFSAs or used these funds for their personal use, such as to renovate their homes, vacations etc.

Funding an owner/manager’s TFSA has become even more problematic with the proposed TFSA increase from $5,500 to $10,000 announced in the March, 2015 budget. Some of my clients who do not have any available non-registered money to fund their TFSAs have automatically assumed they should fund their future contributions with corporate funds, as opposed to leaving the funds in their corporations and not funding their TFSAs.

Their thinking is premised on the belief that their TFSAs will provide for tax-free withdrawals in the future, while the money remaining in their corporation will ultimately be taxable when the funds are withdrawn as dividends.

As I have also been contemplating the question of whether you are better off funding a TFSA with corporate funds (via a dividend), or not funding a TFSA at all and growing a corporate "retirement account", I decided to run some numbers to see what they reflected.

Based on some simple calculations (provided below), the answer is not necessarily clear cut, although in general, it appears you will in most cases want to fund your TFSA with corporate funds. I provide some general guidelines below.

For the mathematicians out there, please do not have any heart palpitations. I concede a vigorous analysis would include various permutations, combinations and Monte Carlo simulations, but I have neither the tools, nor the time to undertake such an analysis.

The BBC’s Analysis

In undertaking my calculations I made some large assumptions.

1. The individual taxpayer is at the highest marginal rate (in Ontario).

2. The initial active income earned in the corporation was taxed at the lowest corporate rate of 15.5% (in Ontario).

3. I assumed a 30 year investment horizon and I used a flat 5% rate of return on the money, whether the income earned was interest, capital gains or dividends (of course in real life, typically the return on capital gains would be far in excess of that of interest and dividends), but you need to have a standard comparison point.

4. For purposes of this exercise, I assumed all dividends received are eligible dividends from Canadian public companies. 

What Did I Determine

My calculations reflected the following:

1. If you are earning interest in your corporation, you are clearly better off removing those funds via a dividend and investing the after-tax proceeds in your TFSA.

2. If all you are earning is capital gains, you are probably better off leaving those funds in your corporation, rather than removing the money via a dividend and funding your TFSA.

3. If you are earning eligible dividends in your corporation, you are better off removing the funds from your company. However, the timing and your marginal tax rate at the time could change that decision.

Since most portfolios earn a blend of interest, capital gains and dividends, depending upon the actual mix (this is why you would need to run your own numbers), you will likely want to use corporate funds to invest in your TFSA.

I should note that I did play around a little with income tax brackets. I compared the $44,701- $72,064 and $89,401-$138,586 income tax brackets to the highest marginal rate bracket. I determined that at the lower brackets, there is a slightly larger bias to funding your TFSA with after-tax corporate funds for all types of income, but the differences were not compelling.

As noted above, a rugged analysis would require multiple simulations which I don't have the tools to undertake. This analysis would take into account the different corporate tax rates, rates of return, income levels, future and current tax rates, income smoothing, portfolio allocation and investing style (some people only invest in higher risk equities that will produce capital gains in their TFSA - i.e. the greatest upside with no tax).

I would like to think this post was not an exercise in mathematical futility. Instead, I hope it gives you reason for pause in automatically assuming you should fund your TFSA with corporate funds, as opposed to leaving those funds in your corporation to grow over time. In order to ensure you make the correct decision, you need to review this issue with your accountant taking into account your specific income tax and investing circumstances.

The Calculations

Year 1
Corporate Income	19,763		Corporate Dividend		16,700
Income Tax 15.5%	3,063		Personal Tax 40.13%		6,700
Net Proceeds	16,700		Net personal		10,000

TFSA
	Funds	Five %	Total
		Return
Year 2	10000	500	10500
Year 3	10500	525	11025
Year 4	11025	551	11576
Year 5	11576	579	12155
Year 10	14775	739	15513
Year 15	18856	943	19799
Year 20	24066	1203	25270
Year 25	30715	1536	32251
Year 30	39201	1960	41161

INTEREST
	Funds	Five %	Corp Tax	RDTOH	Net Return
		Return	46.17%	26.67%
	(A)	(B)	(C )	(D)	A+B-C
Year 2	16,700	835	386	223	17,149
Year 3	17,149	857	396	229	17,611
Year 4	17,611	881	407	235	18,085
Year 5	18,085	904	417	241	18,572
Year 10	20,653	1033	477	275	21,209
Year 15	23,587	1179	544	315	24,221
Year 20	26,936	1347	622	359	27,661
Year 25	30,762	1538	710	410	31,590
Year 30	35,130	1757	811	468	36,076
RDTOH				9,600	9,600
Dividend paid					45,676
Tax on dividend				Tax 40.13%	18,330
Net Proceeds					27,346

  

CAPITAL GAIN
	Funds	Five %		Corp Tax	RDTOH	Net Return
		Return		23.09%	13.33%
	(A)	(B)		(C )	(D)	A+B-C
Year 2	16,700	835		193	111	17,342
Year 3	17,342	867		200	115	18,009
Year 4	18,009	900		208	120	18,702
Year 5	18,702	935		216	124	19,421
Year 10	22,585	1129		261	150	23,453
Year 15	27,274	1364		315	181	28,323
Year 20	32,938	1647		380	219	34,204
Year 25	39,777	1989		459	265	41,307
Year 30	48,037	2402		555	319	49,884
		43,146		9,962	5,738
Capital dividend        50%*$43,146						-21,573
Funds available for dividend						28,311
RDTOH paid out					5,738	5,738
Dividend paid						34,049
Tax on dividend paid			Tax 40.13%			13,664
						20,385
Capital dividend paid out tax free						21,573
Net proceeds						41,958

ELIGIBLE DIVIDEND RECEIVED
	Funds	Five %	Part 4 Tax	RDTOH	Net Return
		Return	33.33%	33.33%
	(A)	(B)	(C )	(D)	A+B-C
Year 2	16,700	835	278	278	17,257
Year 3	17,257	863	288	288	17,832
Year 4	17,832	892	297	297	18,426
Year 5	18,426	921	307	307	19,041
Year 10	21,709	1085	362	362	22,433
Year 15	25,577	1279	426	426	26,430
Year 20	30,134	1507	502	502	31,139
Year 25	35,503	1775	592	592	36,686
Year 30	41,828	2091	697	697	43,222
RDTOH		39,782		13,259	13,259
Dividend paid					56,481
Tax on eligible dividend ($39,782*.3382)					-13,454
Tax on ineligible dividend ($16,699*.4013)					-6,701
Net proceeds					36,326

Note: I apologize for the formatting on the dividend chart. I made a change and now cannot get it back to its original format.

This site provides general information on various tax issues and other matters. The information is not intended to constitute professional advice and may not be appropriate for a specific individual or fact situation. It is written by the author solely in their personal capacity and cannot be attributed to the accounting firm with which they are affiliated. It is not intended to constitute professional advice, and neither the author nor the firm with which the author is associated shall accept any liability in respect of any reliance on the information contained herein. Readers should always consult with their professional advisors in respect of their particular situation. Please note the blog post is time sensitive and subject to changes in legislation or law.