Contents Overview: How Canadian Tax Law Determines Whether a Transfer Is a Gift What Does “Gift” Mean for Canadian Income Tax Purposes? Tax Consequences of Gifts in Common Situations Gifts in an Employment or Business Setting Gifts of Capital Property and Rollover Treatment Donative Intent: When Is a Transfer...
Overview: Tax Consequences of Canada’s New Foreign Influence Registry Canada’s Foreign Influence Transparency and Accountability Act came into force on August 4, 2026, creating a public registry overseen by the Office of the Foreign Influence Commissioner. Most of the commentary since then has focused on who is caught by...
Overview: Robinson v Canada and the Three-Year MAP Deadline Under the Canada-UK Tax Treaty Robinson v Canada (Attorney General), 2026 FC 854 (Federal Court File No. T-1567-22) is a significant Federal Court decision for taxpayers, accountants, and advisors managing cross-border residence disputes. The case confirms that the three-year...
Overview Canadian tax law asks, over and over again, whether two people are “related.” The answer decides whether a home purchaser can claim the GST/HST New Housing Rebate, whether two corporations must share a single small business deduction limit instead of each claiming their own, and whether income shifted...
Truck Driver Taxes in Canada: TL2 Meals, GST/HST, and Worker Classification Truck driving is one of the few occupations where the Income Tax Act gives workers their own specialized deduction regime, and yet it is also one of the sectors the Canada Revenue Agency has flagged as a compliance...
Overview Since 2022, the City of Toronto has imposed an annual Vacant Home Tax (VHT) on residential units left unoccupied for more than six months of the year. For most owners the tax is an afterthought: file the annual declaration, confirm the unit was lived in, and move on....
Falling behind on a Toronto property tax bill is stressful enough on its own. It becomes more complicated when an unrelated debt, such as an unpaid water bill, a by-law fine, or a local improvement charge, suddenly shows up added to the same tax account. Many Toronto property owners...
Overview – Why the Tax Treatment of Employment Settlements Matters Before the Agreement Is Signed Employment settlements are often negotiated as a gross dollar amount, but employees and employers usually care about the net result. A wrongful-dismissal settlement, severance package, human-rights settlement, harassment award, stock-option settlement, or payment in...
Overview – When Can the CRA Deny a Business Expense? Many Canadian business owners assume that if a business expense was actually incurred and was genuinely connected to earning business income, it will be fully deductible for income tax purposes. That assumption is not always correct. Even where an...
Quick Answer: What Is the Toronto Vacant Home Tax? The Toronto vacant home tax (VHT) is a 3 percent annual municipal tax applied to residential properties in Toronto that are vacant for more than six months in a calendar year. The rate was 1 percent when the program launched...