The CRA, in technical interpretation 2018-0776661I7 (August 8, 2019), takes the position that a Bitcoin miner receives Bitcoin as barter for services rendered. The transaction is a barter transaction because Bitcoin isn’t legal tender (see IT-490 “Barter Transactions”). The receipt…
Handing over records to CRA
Clients sometimes complain to me that they have given records to a CRA auditor who then returns only some of the records or returns them in a disorganized state that makes them difficult to work with. Accordingly, if a client…
Employee parking pass
Amit Ummat summarizes Smith v R, 2019 FCA 173, in which the Court held that a flight attendant received a taxable benefit from an employer-provided parking pass.
Director resignations
In Singh v R, 2019 TCC 120, the taxpayer had been assessed as a director of a corporation for its unremitted HST. The issue considered by the Court was whether, as the taxpayer claimed, he had resigned more than two years before the date of the assessment in issue (per subsection 323(5) of the Excise Tax Act).
Trust miscellania
Some points of interest from a recent CRA technical interpretation (2017-0683021I7, June 8, 2018) respecting a reorganization involving a trust with non-resident beneficiaries: The trustees of a trust purported to add a ULC as a beneficiary. The CRA, however, noted…
Five-year test when no related individual
An employee who works in a business on a full-time basis (ie more than an average of 20 hours per week) for five or more years will not be subject to TOSI even where the years occurred before the TOSI…
Employee discounts
the CRA acknowledges that its administrative position on employee discount programs is that an employee may exclude from income discounts on merchandise and commissions from personal purchases, but that administrative position does not…
Dividends to a trust and Part VI.1 tax
Opco wishes to redeem low-low preference shares held by a family trust, which proposes to allocate the resulting deemed dividend to a beneficiaryco (Benco). Will Part VI.1 tax apply to Opco? If the preference shares are subject to a price…
TOSI and rental income
Mr X owns the voting shares of Holdco that owns a rental property. His two kids own non-voting shares that on which Holdco pays dividends. Does the TOSI apply to dividends paid to the kids? Is the rental operation a…
CDA surplus stripping
Can a corporation trigger capital gains deliberately to increase its CDA and, as a result, facilitate surplus stripping? Using 55(2) for this purpose might problematic because of issues with the purpose test. A share exchange might be problematic as well.…