Alexander Marino is quoted in an article titled “Trump bump: U.S. citizenship renunciation inquiries surge in Canada, lawyers say” on CBC News, January 28, 2025.
Alexander Marino is quoted in an article titled “‘Scary’: Why US expats are tossing their citizenships – and it’s not just Trump” in The Sydney Morning Herald, November 1, 2024
Kenneth Keung is quoted in the Investment Executive article titled “Quirk in capital gains tax rules raises risks for incorporated clients,” published on July 24, 2024.
Kenneth Keung is quoted in the Investment Executive article titled “How should trusts flow out capital gains to beneficiaries in 2024?”, July 5, 2024.
Kim G C Moody, Kenneth Keung, and Christopher Ellett are quoted in the Investment Executive article titled “When is the latest clients can sell assets prior to June 25?”, published on May 17, 2024.
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The story of the cow, the pipeline and MacDonald (regarding the taxpayer’s victory involving subsection 84(2) and the GAAR)
Well, it has been quite a week… first we have a story about a runaway cow that walks up to the drive-through window at a McDonalds restaurant in Brush, Colorado. That’s pretty funny stuff, but the story of the very recently released Tax Court of Canada’s decision in MacDonald, as discussed below, is even better.
Supreme Court of Canada considers residency of a trust in St. Michael Trust Corp.
St. Michael Trust Corp. v. The Queen is the first appeal where the Supreme Court of Canada has considered the test for residency of a trust for tax purposes. The appeal was heard merely four weeks ago. We were surprised when printing out the Court’s judgment that its pages could be bound by a standard staple, which is exceedingly rare for a complex tax appeal. The importance of residency status is that a Canadian-resident taxpayer, including a trust, is taxable in Canada on worldwide income.
The 2012 Federal Budget
On March 29, 2012, The Honourable Jim Flaherty, Minister of Finance released the 2012 Federal Budget. This blog discusses some of the more important tax proposals that will affect our clients and friends. Our blog of February 21, 2012 had some predictions as to what the Federal Budget would contain and certainly some of our predictions have come true as highlighted below.
Treaty shopping explained: Velcro Canada Inc. v. The Queen
The Canada Revenue Agency (“CRA”) recently lost in Tax Court against a taxpayer that had structured their operations to minimize Canadian tax. The case, Velcro Canada Inc. v. The Queen, (“Velcro Canada”) is the first case since the FCA decision of Prevost Car Inc. v. the Queen (“Prevost Car”), (see our blog on March 18, 2009) that deals with the concept of “beneficial ownership” in a treaty shopping context. The purpose of this blog is to outline how treaty shopping works and how the CRA has tried to assess against this practice.
The upcoming 2012 Canadian Federal Budget
As mentioned in an earlier post, the Federal Budget is usually the place where most tax proposals arise. Accordingly, tax practitioners are keenly interested in the detailed Budget proposals that get released. However, as we have mentioned in earlier posts, there are also many income tax amendments / proposals and comfort letters released by the Department of Finance throughout the year. In addition, there are hundreds of cases released by the Courts every year in Canada that affect the practice of tax. Accordingly, while it has long been the tradition by many of our peers to race to release a Federal Budget summary, our approach at Moodys is purposefully different. We will, of course, release a Budget summary but we instead, strive for thoughtful analysis and the timely release of tax information throughout the year; not just once a year.
Some short answers / rebuttals to common tax myths
The study and practice of tax is tough. I have said it before and I’ll say it again, I believe that tax is one of the most difficult areas of practice in existence.
Alexander Marino is quoted in an article titled “Trump bump: U.S. citizenship renunciation inquiries surge in Canada, lawyers say” on CBC News, January 28, 2025.
Alexander Marino is quoted in an article titled “‘Scary’: Why US expats are tossing their citizenships – and it’s not just Trump” in The Sydney Morning Herald, November 1, 2024
Kenneth Keung is quoted in the Investment Executive article titled “Quirk in capital gains tax rules raises risks for incorporated clients,” published on July 24, 2024.
Kenneth Keung is quoted in the Investment Executive article titled “How should trusts flow out capital gains to beneficiaries in 2024?”, July 5, 2024.
Kim G C Moody, Kenneth Keung, and Christopher Ellett are quoted in the Investment Executive article titled “When is the latest clients can sell assets prior to June 25?”, published on May 17, 2024.
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