Remember the CRA’s new trust reporting rules?
In Budget 2018, the Canadian government changed the requirements for filing T3 Trust Income Tax and Information Returns. The rationale was: “Authorities require sufficient information in order to determine taxpayers’ tax liabilities and to effectively counter aggressive tax avoidance as well as tax evasion, money laundering and other criminal activities.” The result is that many trusts that previously were not required to file a T3 return will now have to file and include the new Schedule 15, Beneficial Ownership Information of a Trust.
The effective date for the change has been kicked down the road a couple of times, but it applies for affected trusts with a year end of December 31, 2023 and later.
A small bit of good news: Yesterday, the CRA’s Charities Directorate announced that registered charities will not have to file T3 returns for internal trusts. “Internal trusts are those created when a charity: receives property as a gift that is subject to certain legally enforceable terms and conditions, and holds that property as a trustee of the trust.”
The announcement should be posted soon to the Charities and giving – What’s new web site here: Charity news.