Business Law Blog

Revisions to earlier draft legislation on the Excessive Interest and Finance Expenses Limitation (EIFEL) regime were released by the Department of Finance on November 3, 2022. Lawson Lundell submitted comments on the government’s first round of consultations, raising concerns about the overly broad scope of the rules. A copy of our earlier submission can be found at ...

In June 2022, Canada published a report concerning its tax gap.^[1] A “tax gap” is the difference between (a) the amount of money a tax authority could collect, in theory, if everyone complied with the law; and (b) the amount in fact collected. Canada’s tax gap has remained stable for the period 2014 to 2018, at 9% of tax revenue.^[2] This translates to between $20 billion ...

On February 4, the federal government put forward draft legislation setting out the new Excessive Interest and Financing Expenses Limitation (EIFEL) regime. EIFEL is intended to prevent erosion of the Canadian tax base by limiting net interest and financing deductions of certain Canadian taxpayers generally to 30% of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and ...

Most taxation is concerned with raising revenue for government expenditure in the short term (typically within a year or so of the taxable event). A well-designed modern tax will also typically involve a withholding mechanism: think, for example, of payroll withholding on wages or the charge / input tax credit system in a typical VAT, such as Canada’s GST. The Digital ...

The 2017 Federal Budget (the “Budget”) was released March 22nd, 2017 (“Budget Day”). Highlights include:

Upcoming Review of Private Corporate Tax Planning

 The Budget announced that the federal government will be looking into:

1. Income sprinkling using private corporations: The Budget states that this strategy can reduce income taxes by causing income that ...

Business

Corporate Tax Rate

The small business corporate income tax rate will be reduced from 2.5% to 2% effective April 1, 2017. This means that the combined Federal and Provincial tax rate for small business income, up to $500,000 per year, will be 12.5% in British Columbia (subject, of course, to any changes coming in the Federal Budget).

The Government projects this ...

Introduction

In its recent decision in Minister of National Revenue v. BP Canada Energy Company, the Federal Court of Canada considered the Minister’s ability to compel BP to provide its tax accrual working papers pursuant to the Minister’s inspection powers in subsection 231.1(1) of the Income Tax Act. The decision in favour of the Minister signals a ...

The BC Budget (tabled on February 17, 2015) contained no major announcements and no general corporate or personal tax rate changes. Nonetheless, it provides opportunity for personal tax planning for high rate tax payers, and extends useful assistance to early stage businesses in BC.

Personal

The combined top rate of BC tax is 45.8% (16.8% of BC tax + 29% of Federal tax). The ...

On September 26, 2013 the Supreme Court released its decision in the Envision[1] case. The case deals with the amalgamation of two credit unions, but has broader implications for the tax treatment of amalgamations in Canada, and will be of interest to Canadian corporations contemplating a merger in the future.

In 2001, two BC credit unions amalgamated to form Envision. The ...