Wealth Management

Voted #6 on Top 100 Family Business influencer on Wealth, Legacy, Finance and Investments: Jacoline Loewen My Amazon Authors' page Twitter:@ jacolineloewen Linkedin: Jacoline Loewen Profile

November 5, 2018

2 Changes to Estate and Tax Law in Ontario

The recent changes to Ontario estate law and U.S. tax law might impact families with wealth. These 2 new changes are worth reviewing:

  1. For those of you with multiple wills (used commonly to avoid Probate) should review their Wills. A recent decision, Re Milne, rendered a Primary Will void because it contained a commonly used provision that gave the Trustee discretion to determine what assets to include in the Primary Estate. As a result, multiple wills are only valid if the assets that comprise each of the Primary and Secondary Estate are defined with sufficient certainty. This decision is currently applicable in Ontario, but it is possible that it could be applied in other provinces.
  2.  U.S. citizens in Canada may be impacted by the changes to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, specifically the global intangible low-taxed income (GILTI) tax. U.S. GILTI tax is relevant for any U.S. Shareholder owning 10% or more of a controlled foreign corporation (i.e. a Canadian Corporation with US shareholder). U.S. Shareholders in that situation may have a one-time 15.5% tax, plus they must include in income such profits in excess of a 10% return annually on depreciable tangible assets owned by the corporation whether or not a distribution is made to the U.S. Shareholder.

 

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