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 expanded registration requirements for British Columbia Provincial Sales Tax (“PST”) will come into effect on April 1, 2021. Under the new requirements, and where criteria are met, all Canadian and foreign providers of software and telecommunications services will be required to collect and remit PST at a rate of 7% from customers located in British Columbia.

New ...

Due to the recent economic shock of the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses are considering various options to weather the economic shock. One commonly considered option is to ask existing creditors to forgive all or part of a debt. However, this strategy is subject to a complex regime commonly known as the “debt forgiveness rules”. These rules can trigger important ...

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 ...

The 2016 Federal Budget was released March 22nd. The overarching theme is to provide increased benefits and relief to middle-class individuals and to close or restrict cross-border tax planning. Highlights include:

Income Tax

Increased Individual Marginal Tax Rates

As part of Bill C-2 tabled on December 9, 2015, the federal government announced an increase to the top ...

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 ...