Some of the Tough Questions to ask When Considering a Permanent Life Insurance Policy - Podcast and Blog

On December 12th, I posted a blog on Permanent Life Insurance for High-Net-Worth Individuals and Corporate Business Owners. This blog was based on a podcast on which I was a panelist. In the blog, I expanded on the podcast discussion, to review in greater detail what exactly is permanent insurance and why you may wish to use permanent insurance for estate planning or asset diversification purposes.

I noted in the post, that we intended to have a follow-up podcast on some of the hard questions to ask when you are considering entering into a permanent life insurance policy. That podcast is now available here.

Both podcasts were moderated by Simon Kay of IPS Insurance (email: simon.kay@ipsinsurance.ca). Simon specializes in Life Insurance for HNW individuals and corporate business owners and is the pioneer of Private Underwriting. Jay Hershfield was my fellow panelist on both podcasts. Jay is a highly regarded tax and estate specialist with an insurance expertise and is currently a director with Scotia Wealth Management.

Some of the tough questions we covered in this podcast include:

• Are there any income tax rules that make the payment of a tax-free capital dividend not effectively 100% tax-free to the final estate?

• If a permanent policy has a cash surrender value (“CSV”), are there any circumstances the CSV can increase the value of shares on death, thereby increasing the estate’s tax liability?

• Can a change in dividend scale affect future premiums or policy values?

• How can your children’s plans for your Holdco upon the passing of the last surviving parent affect your tax planning?

• What are the risks and advantages of leveraged insurance?

• If you are younger married person, should your policy be a last-to-die policy?

If you are considering purchasing a permanent life insurance policy or currently reviewing a proposal, I would suggest this podcast is a must listen. Personally, I do not recall reading an article or listening to a podcast that discusses these hard questions in such detail.

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.

The Basics and Uses of Term and Permanent Life Insurance

I am back after a summer of R&R, which proved more golf does not mean you will play better golf. 😊 I hope everyone had a good summer and had a chance to decompress from the stress of the last year and a half.

With the ability to finally get together with friends and family (socially distanced) this summer, there was lots to catch-up on and discuss. I guess because of COVID contemplation, the topic of insurance surprisingly came up a couple times during these get togethers and I noted some confusion on the topic.

So, I thought today, I would post on the basics and uses of insurance and discuss the two main types of insurance: term insurance and permanent insurance.

Term Insurance

In its most basic form, term insurance covers you if you die during the term of the insurance; but there is no cash value, guarantee or payment if you die once your term insurance has lapsed. Term insurance is often limited to a certain age (75-85) and becomes very expensive as you age (for example, my term insurance increased substantially when it renewed at the end of the 10-year term when I turned 60 years old). Thus, many term policies are either cancelled as your need for term insurance diminishes (see discussion below) or people allow them to lapse due to the age/premium cost constraints. It should be noted there are variations on term insurance and certain polices allow you to convert the term policy to permanent insurance.

On an overly simplistic level, term insurance can be compared to renting versus buying a home. When you pay rent on your apartment, condominium, or home, you have a place to live, but the rent paid does not build any equity and the monthly rent paid is cash forgone. The same holds with term insurance. If you are healthy throughout the term of the policy, you do not build any cash value/equity and the monthly insurance cost paid is forgone (although obviously, if you die while owing term insurance, your estate is paid the insurance).

As term insurance is temporary and has no cash value, it is the most cost-effective type of insurance available and is generally used to insure a specific need or a couple needs, such as one or two of the following:

1. Income replacement – term insurance can be used as a "replacement" of income for the deceased person. This is particularly important where one spouse/partner is the breadwinner, but is still often, a very good idea even when both spouses work. The objective of the term insurance in this situation is to allow your family to live in the manner they are accustomed to even if you or your spouse/partner passes away.

2. Financial security for dependents – this is really just a subset of #1, but term insurance ensures your spouse/partner is taken care of the rest of their life, and your dependents are financially covered until they are ready to join the workforce.

3. Debt and Mortgage protection - insurance can be used to pay off debt, typically the mortgage on your home when you pass away so that your family is relived of the debt burden.

4. Funding of University - many parents want to ensure their children are educated and use insurance to backstop that goal in case they were to pass away.

Permanent Insurance

The two main types of permanent insurance (although there are several variations and permutations) are:

1. Whole Life

2. Universal Life (“UL”)

These policies provide insurance coverage for life, so your estate is guaranteed an insurance payout of some quantum. I provide some brief comments on whole and UL insurance below:

Whole Life

With a whole life policy, the risk is typically shared between you and the insurance company. The insurance payments are generally fixed, have a cash surrender value (that can be borrowed against during the life of the policy or withdrawn if the policy is surrendered) but the premiums growth of the cash and death benefit can be affected by a calculation called the dividend scale. If the dividend scale drops too low, there will be less cash value and potentially require further premium payments by the policyholder to ensure the policy does not lapse. So, when looking at a whole life policy, you should ensure your advisor provides different dividend scale scenarios in their proposals, so you have an expected scenario and a worse case scenario to compare.

Universal Life

The premiums for a UL policy are typically more flexible and generally do not provide a significant cash surrender value and the risk of the policy typically falls to the insurance company. There is an insurance component and a tax sheltered “savings” component.

There are various opinions on whether whole life or UL are better choices, but really, they are dependent upon your personal risk and insurance needs. In all honesty, both whole life and UL are complex to understand. I plan in the future, to have a guest post to discuss in greater detail the differences, advantages and disadvantages of whole life and UL.

Where to use Permanent Insurance

Whether you purchase whole or UL, permanent insurance usually makes sense for the following situations: It should be noted that because insurance proceeds are credited to the capital dividend account (see this prior blog post on the capital dividend account) permanent insurance if very often used by corporations, which can make the policies tax effective.

Uses of Permanent Insurance

As noted previously, unlike term insurance which typically covers temporary needs, permanent insurance if often used for longer term needs, such as the following:

1. Estate planning – Upon death, your estate will be allocated in some combination to the CRA in taxes, your family or charity. Permanent insurance can be used to provide the liquidity for paying your estate tax liability (typically in a much more tax effective manner than self-funding), estate equalization with your family or even estate growth/maximization by leaving a larger estate to your family from the insurance pay-out.

2. Business or partnership agreements – Permanent insurance can be a very tax effective way to buy out a deceased partner or shareholder under the terms of a partnership or shareholder agreement. As noted above, permanent insurance if very often utilized where corporations are involved because of the capital dividend account.

3. Passive Income rules- Permanent insurance can shelter income tax free within a policy, which effectively reduces taxable passive income for a corporation and therefore can potentially reduce the small business claw back for corporations.

4. Charitable – You can name a charity as beneficiary of a policy or make a bequest of the death benefit from a permanent policy to a charity of your choice and your estate will receive a charitable tax credit upon your death. You can also purchase or transfer a policy (this may result in a taxable deemed disposition, so speak to your accountant first) to a charity and you would receive a tax credit on the yearly premium payments.

5. Alternative for Fixed Income – I have seen some sophisticated investors use a permanent insurance policy to replace the fixed income component of their portfolio, as even when you factor in the cost of insurance, the return of a permanent policy may exceed the return from fixed income investments.

When you use the word insurance most people wince and only focus on the premium costs. But as discussed above, insurance can protect you short-term or be used to assist with longer term business and estate planning needs. In addition, with permanent insurance, the after- tax returns of an insurance policy versus alternative investments are often higher even after accounting for paying the insurance premiums.

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.

The Best of The Blunt Bean Counter - Capital Dividends - A Tax-Free Withdrawal from your Company

This summer I am posting the "best of" The Blunt Bean Counter blog while I work on my golf game (which is not going well by the way, as my handicap has gone up 3 strokes since the beginning of the year). Notwithstanding my handicap increase, I just came back from an awesome trip to Cabot Links. The picture below of the 16th hole at Cabot Cliffs is a bit deceiving since the tee is actually to the left and further up, but it is a blind shot to a two tier green so no day in the park. Plus, when the wind blows it is crazy. The first day with no wind I actually hit to within 15 feet of the pin, the next day with huge winds I aimed ten yards out to the ocean and the ball still blew left of the green, pretty crazy.

Anyways, back to the topic at hand. Next week I start a three-part series on cottages, but today, I am re-posting a March 2015 post that discussed how small corporate business owners can take advantage of the Capital Dividend Account ("CDA"). Given I had over 80 comments, it was of definite interest.

As per my post last week, Tax Planning Using Private Corporations - The New Liberal Proposals there may be future tax changes that impact the CDA. However, at this time, I cannot state with any certainty how those changes may impact the CDA account. 

Capital Dividends - A Tax-Free Withdrawal from your Company

If you are a private corporate business owner, you may be sitting on a treasure trove of tax-free money. Yes, I said tax-free money. The source of these “free” funds is the CDA, which I discuss in greater detail below. Although a CDA account is most often found in holding/investment companies, the largest accounts are often generated in active companies who have sold all or part of their business.

Private business owners often discuss with their professional advisors whether they should take salary and/or dividends, which are both taxable to the owner when paid. However, surprisingly, the possibility of paying a tax-free dividend is often overlooked, which is possible if the dividend is paid from the Capital Dividend Account (“CDA”) of a private corporation to a Canadian resident individual.

The Capital Dividend Account

The CDA tracks certain amounts that are not taxable to the Company and may be distributed to shareholders with no personal tax. For example:

(i) if the company earns a capital gain which is 50% taxable, the half that is not taxable is added to the CDA.

(ii) if the company was paid a capital dividend from another company it invested in, that amount is not taxable and is added to the CDA.

(iii) if the company sells a particular eligible capital property (“ECP”) in the year, the portion of the gain that is not taxable is added to the CDA. Please note that the addition to the CDA occurs at the end of the year in which the sale of the ECP took place. As a result, the CDA cannot be paid out tax-free until the first moment of the following taxation year (there have been significant changes to the ECP rules since I wrote this post, please speak to your accountant. For reference, I wrote this blog post on the changes).

(iv) if the company receives proceeds from a life insurance policy which are considered to be non-taxable, this is added to the CDA.

(v) if the company incurs a capital loss, 50% of such amount that will not be deductible in the current or future years against capital gains and will reduce the CDA.

Filing and Declaring a Capital Dividend

The following are the filing procedures and considerations as to the timing of declaring a capital dividend:

i) For the dividend to be tax-free, the company needs to make an election on Form T2054 - Election for a Capital Dividend Under Subsection 83(2), which is due to be filed with the Canada Revenue Agency on or before the earlier of the day that the dividend is paid or becomes payable.

A certified copy of the Director(s) resolution authorizing the capital dividend and a detailed calculation of the CDA at the earlier of the date the capital dividend is paid or becomes payable must accompany the Form T2054.

If the Form T2054 and attachments are filed late, a penalty will arise.

ii) If the Canada Revenue Agency reviews the election and determines that the capital dividend paid (or declared) was too high, then a penalty, equal to 3/5 of the excess of dividend over the CDA balance available, will arise.

It is possible to avoid such penalty if an election is made to treat the excess portion as a taxable dividend at the time it is paid, and such election is filed within 90 days after the date of the notice of assessment in respect of the tax on the excess, noted above.

To avoid these negative consequences, it is important to properly calculate the CDA.

iii) The CDA is a cumulative account from the date of incorporation (assuming it has always been a private corporation). If the company has not previously filed a Form T2054, it will be necessary to review the historical capital gains and losses and corporate activities from the date of incorporation to the date of the dividend in order to determine the correct CDA balance.

iiii) The CDA is paid at a moment in time. If you have a CDA balance but incur a loss the next day, your CDA balance is reduced. Thus, in general, it is prudent to pay a CDA dividend when the account reaches a material amount (this amount is different to each person) so that you do not take the risk of a capital loss reducing the balance in the account. If you pay a capital dividend and then incur a capital loss, the account can go negative.

Further analysis may be required for any non-resident shareholders, since a payment from the CDA to a non-resident of Canada is subject to non-resident withholding tax and the dividend may be taxable in their country of residence.

Journal Entries

Some companies reflect capital dividends by adjusting journal entry (“AJE”), rather than paying the actual dividend. Where the dividend is paid by AJE, the shareholder loan is credited. This creates a tax-free loan owing from the company to the shareholder. The CRA has stated that an AJE on its own does not constitute payment of the funds and that a demand promissory note accepted by the recipient as absolute payment together with an indication of such an intention in the resolutions is at a minimum required to have the dividend considered paid and received.

Balance Determination

Where a company has had more than one accountant and/or has amalgamated with other corporations in the past, the determination of the CDA can be problematic. The CRA now allows you to file Schedule 89 to help your verify the account. Note, they may only verify part of the years, so for older companies, this may still be problematic.

Speak with your accountant to see if your private company has a CDA balance. If so, paying out a capital dividend should be considered as part of your Company’s overall remuneration strategy.

 

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.

What Small Business Owners Need to Know - Shareholder Agreements

If you are starting in business with another individual, your accountants and lawyers will likely suggest that you draft a shareholder agreement. However, since many small businesses are started by family and/or friends with limited funds, the idea of paying a lawyer to draft a shareholder agreement is usually not at the top of the priority list for two reasons:

123RF Stock Photo Copyright: Andrew Grossman

1. The cost of drafting the agreement.

2. Why Worry? Since the shareholders are family or friends, everything will work out because - well, we are family and/or friends, so what could go wrong? 

Consequently, shareholders of many small businesses may go several years before they decide it is time to engage a lawyer to draft a shareholder agreement. Typically the two catalysts to action are:

1. The business has become profitable enough that the shareholders want to ensure if something were to happen to them, their family is well provided for.

2. There is some shareholder friction.

In today’s post, I will discuss two key areas that should be considered/included in any shareholder agreement, whether drafted at the outset of the establishment of the business or years after the business has begun. As many agreements are over 25 pages, please keep in mind I am touching on maybe 30-50% of what is required in a typical shareholder agreement and providing an accountants take on a legal document. I am not a lawyer. If you need an agreement, you must obtain proper legal advice and should get moving on the project, as most agreements take many months to be hammered out.

Key Considerations in a Shareholder Agreement

The two issues I am going to discuss in this post are:

1. Share Transfer Provisions

2. Death Provisions

Share Transfer Provisions

Share transfer provisions in a shareholder agreement provide some order to the often “unorderly” process of third party share sales, unsolicited share offers, shareholder exits and shareholder power struggles.

The most common provisions included in a shareholder agreement are:

1. Right of First Refusal

2. Shotgun

3. Piggyback

4. Drag-along

Right of First Refusal

In order to protect one shareholder from selling to an unwanted or undesirable third party, shareholder agreements typically contain a Right of First Refusal provision.

These provisions typically state that the existing shareholders have the option to match a third party offer made to any of the other shareholders and to purchase the shares of the selling shareholder themselves, on the same terms and conditions as offered by the third party. Minority shareholders, depending upon their financial situations, may be somewhat prejudiced by these provisions.

A related shareholder agreement provision is a Right of First Offer. Under this provision, a shareholder does not need a hard third party offer and can just state the terms on which they wish to leave the company and if the other shareholders do not take them up on the offer, they can sell to a third party on those terms.

Shotgun

A shotgun provision allows one of the shareholders to offer the other shareholders a price and the terms under which they are prepared to either purchase the other shareholder’s shares or sell their shares to the other shareholders. In theory, this will result in a fair price, since the shareholder triggering the shotgun, does not know if they will be selling or buying.

Once the offer is made, the other shareholders must decide whether they wish to buy the offered shares or sell their own shares on the same terms and conditions presented.

While this provision is often useful in shareholder disputes, where one shareholder has more resources than another, they may be dictating the end result of the shotgun, since the shareholder with less finances will not have the resources to fund the purchase of the shares and will be forced to sell.

Piggyback

A common share provision used to protect minority shareholders is a “piggyback” right. This provision protects a minority shareholder from being excluded by the majority shareholders, where they wish to sell their shares to a third party, but have not included the minority shareholder as part of the deal for one of many possible reasons.

A “piggyback” right typically allows a minority shareholder to sell some of their shares to the third party purchaser under the same terms as the majority shareholders.

Drag-along

As noted above, a “piggyback” provision protects minority shareholders where they are excluded from a sale by the majority shareholders. A drag-along provision is a clause that allows the majority shareholder to drag-along the minority shareholder whether they like it or not, where the majority shareholders want to sell and the purchaser wants 100% ownership with no minority owners.

These provisions will often have a minimum price to protect the minority shareholders from selling at a price they consider too low and/or apply only after they had the opportunity to purchase the departing shareholders shares (which in many cases is not practical given their resources).

Death Provisions

It is very important that any shareholders' agreement consider the death and disability of any of the shareholders. I briefly want to discuss one issue that can arise upon the death of a shareholder; that being the flow-through of the capital dividend account to the spouse or estate of the deceased shareholder.

Typically shareholder agreements require all shareholders to obtain life insurance with the corporation being the beneficiary. The idea is that if one shareholder were to die, the insurance is sufficient to allow the corporation to redeem the deceased shareholders shares at their fair market value, subject to a valuation. It should be noted, that life insurance proceeds generally are added to the corporations capital dividend account and can be paid as a tax-free dividend.

The requirement to redeem the deceased shareholder’s shares generally allows the surviving spouse to receive most of the redemption funds tax-free (via the capital dividend) and the remaining shareholders to obtain control of the corporation, with minimal cash outflow, since typically the insurance covers most if not all of the redemption price payable to the spouse or estate.

The reason I have mentioned all this is; that while most agreements have a clause regarding the redemption of the deceased shareholder’s shares and the requirement for the shareholders to obtain life insurance, I have seen on several occasions no mention that the funds used to redeem the shares must be paid from the capital dividend account ("CDA") caused by the insurance (Nowadays, many lawyers do not specifically reference the CDA, but have a clause requiring the redemption to be made in the most tax efficient manner for the vendor). 

Without this clause, the corporation can use the life insurance proceeds to redeem the shares, but keep the capital dividend for itself and its remaining shareholders. While most people would not try and take advantage of such a missing provision, where the shareholders and their families have not got along, the surviving shareholder could try and “stick-it” to the estate of the deceased shareholder without a clear provision.

Marital Breakdown

Many shareholders do not consider that a marriage breakdown by one shareholder can significantly impact the other shareholders. As this post is too long as it is, I will quickly point you to an interesting article published by Jordan Dolgin Do Family Law Clauses in Shareholder Agreements Really Matter? that discusses this topic.

My post today just touches on just a couple points you need to consider in drafting a shareholder agreement. If you have a corporation and do not have such an agreement, I suggest you contact your lawyer and get to work promptly on drafting such.

Bloggers Note: I have disabled the ability to comment on this or any prior blog post. I apologize, but I am too busy during tax season to answer the various questions and comments I receive.

The above blog post is for general information purposes only and does not constitute legal or other professional advice or an opinion of any kind. Readers are advised to seek specific legal advice regarding any specific legal issues.

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.

Small Business Owners - Get on my Mailing List

If you are an owner-manager and/or a shareholder in a corporation and have not signed up for my corporate mailing list, please email me at bluntbeancounter@gmail.com.

I will be sending out specific mailings on matters of importance to small business owners and I am considering, depending upon the interest, holding a roundtable for small business owners who are in the Toronto area. I will start the mailings in May.

Thanks to the many readers who have already signed up.

Capital Dividends - A Tax-Free Withdrawal from your Company

If you are a private corporate business owner, you may be sitting on a treasure trove of tax-free money. Yes, I said tax-free money. The source of these “free” funds is the Capital Dividend Account (“CDA”), which I discuss in greater detail below. Although a CDA account is most often found in holding/investment companies, the largest accounts are often generated in active companies who have sold all or part of their business.

Private business owners often discuss with their professional advisors whether they should take salary and/or dividends, which are both taxable to the owner when paid. However, surprisingly, the possibility of paying a tax-free dividend is often overlooked, which is possible if the dividend is paid from the Capital Dividend Account (“CDA”) of a private corporation to a Canadian resident individual.

The Capital Dividend Account

The CDA tracks certain amounts that are not taxable to the Company and may be distributed to shareholders with no personal tax. For example:

(i) if the company earns a capital gain which is 50% taxable, the half that is not taxable is added to the CDA.

(ii) if the company was paid a capital dividend from another company it invested in, that amount is not taxable and is added to the CDA.

(iii) if the company sells a particular eligible capital property (“ECP”) in the year, the portion of the gain that is not taxable is added to the CDA. Please note that the addition to the CDA occurs at the end of the year in which the sale of the ECP took place. As a result, the CDA cannot be paid out tax-free until the first moment of the following taxation year.

(iv) if the company receives proceeds from a life insurance policy which are considered to be non-taxable, this is added to the CDA.

(v) if the company incurs a capital loss, 50% of such amount that will not be deductible in the current or future years against capital gains and will reduce the CDA.

Filing and Declaring a Capital Dividend

The following are the filing procedures and considerations as to the timing of declaring a capital dividend:

i) For the dividend to be tax-free, the company needs to make an election on Form T2054 - Election for a Capital Dividend Under Subsection 83(2), which is due to be filed with the Canada Revenue Agency on or before the earlier of the day that the dividend is paid or becomes payable.

A certified copy of the Director(s) resolution authorizing the capital dividend and a detailed calculation of the CDA at the earlier of the date the capital dividend is paid or becomes payable must accompany the Form T2054.

If the Form T2054 and attachments are filed late, a penalty will arise.

ii) If the Canada Revenue Agency reviews the election and determines that the capital dividend paid (or declared) was too high, then a penalty, equal to 3/5 of the excess of dividend over the CDA balance available, will arise.

It is possible to avoid such penalty if an election is made to treat the excess portion as a taxable dividend at the time it is paid, and such election is filed within 90 days after the date of the notice of assessment in respect of the tax on the excess, noted above.

To avoid these negative consequences, it is important to properly calculate the CDA.

iii) The CDA is a cumulative account from the date of incorporation (assuming it has always been a private corporation). If the company has not previously filed a Form T2054, it will be necessary to review the historical capital gains and losses and corporate activities from the date of incorporation to the date of the dividend in order to determine the correct CDA balance.

iiii) The CDA is paid at a moment in time. If you have a CDA balance but incur a loss the next day, your CDA balance is reduced. Thus, in general, it is prudent to pay a CDA dividend when the account reaches a material amount (this amount is different to each person) so that you do not take the risk of a capital loss reducing the balance in the account. If you pay a capital dividend and then incur a capital loss, the account can go negative.

Further analysis may be required for any non-resident shareholders, since a payment from the CDA to a non-resident of Canada is subject to non-resident withholding tax and the dividend may be taxable in their country of residence.

Journal Entries

Some companies reflect capital dividends by adjusting journal entry (“AJE”), rather than paying the actual dividend. Where the dividend is paid by AJE, the shareholder loan is credited. This creates a tax-free loan owing from the company to the shareholder. The CRA has stated that an AJE on its own does not constitute payment of the funds and that a demand promissory note accepted by the recipient as absolute payment together with an indication of such an intention in the resolutions is at a minimum required to have the dividend considered paid and received.

Balance Determination

Where a company has had more than one accountant and/or has amalgamated with other corporations in the past, the determination of the CDA can be problematic. The CRA recently announced that as of April, 2015, a CDA balance request form will be available to hopefully alleviate this tracking issue.

Speak with your accountant to see if your private company has a CDA balance. If so, paying out a capital dividend should be considered as part of your Company’s overall remuneration strategy.

 

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.Please note the material is time sensitive and subject to changes in legislation or law.