Heather Marshall: Wills, Estates, Real Estate

10/21/2023

Tax Update: New Trust Reporting Rules

With limited exceptions, starting with the 2023 tax year, the trust reporting rules in Canada have expanded to capture bare trust arrangements. A bare trust is an arrangement whereby a person(s) or corporation (the “bare trustee”) holds legal title to real property or other assets, but the benef...

06/07/2023

Executors are generally entitled to compensation for their time, trouble, care and skill expended in the administration of an estate. However, that compensation is taxable as income in the hands of the executor.

The growing size of estates means higher executor fees and a spike in income that executors have to report on their tax returns

04/19/2023

Rob Carrick takes a question about RRIFs to clear up some misinformation, and help people manage them better

02/23/2023

With a limited exception, Canada's MAID laws require a person to consent to MAID on the day it is provided. You cannot make an advance request today for medical assistance in dying at a future point in time, when you have lost the legal capacity to consent. What does this mean for people with an incurable condition like dementia or Alzheimer's who may lose their capacity to consent long before their suffering becomes intolerable. Who should be tasked with interpreting a patient's advance directive and whether the threshold for MAID has been met?

Canada’s current legislation requires people to clearly consent to medical assistance in dying, on the day it is provided – with a limited exception

01/10/2023

Do you live in Toronto? Don’t forget to file your occupancy status declaration by the February 2 deadline!

In 2021, the City of Toronto introduced an annual tax on vacant residential properties with the stated goal of increasing the City’s supply of housing by discouraging owners from leaving their residential properties unoccupied. The tax is payable beginning in 2023. A Vacant Home Tax (“VHT”) of...

12/03/2022

What to do with all the STUFF?!!

A recent article published in the Globe and Mail* estimates that over the next 10 years, Canadians will inherit an estimated One Trillion Dollars. As the author points out, it’s not just real estate, investment portfolios and cash that are being passed on by aging parents, but also piles and piles...

07/04/2022

Since you can’t unwind an annuities contract once you start receiving income, you should use an annuity for just part of your retirement income

06/11/2022

Cottage season is upon us once again. Time to think about cottage succession planning.

Setting up trusts gave this couple flexibility around the ownership of their cottage property

06/06/2022

The Canadian income tax system uses the individual as the tax unit rather than the family. In many cases, this results in unequal tax treatment of families that make the same amount of “total family income”. If spouse A earns $150,000 a year in salary and spouse B earns $0 a year, the tax will b...

04/07/2022

Do you have a trust and not even know it? Has the government cast its net too wide?

Clients may have bare trust arrangements without being aware of them

12/31/2021

Wishing everyone a healthy, happy and prosperous 2022! Here are some lessons learned this past year.

Heather Marshall shares lessons learned while working with clients this year at her Ontario Wills and Estates and Real Estate Law practice.

12/29/2021

I’ve previously blogged about the plethora of changes to Ontario estates laws in the last year, including the now non-revocation of wills upon marriage, effective Jan 1, 2022.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/investing/personal-finance/household-finances/article-ontarios-jan-1-law-change-will-affect-wills-of-divorced-people/?fbclid=IwAR3bTXpieJ07b0A3tZYvAk2f9hBKriCKFaAnNA-pL-JrxBrTC-HMxxbzCvI

As of Jan. 1, people in Ontario will no longer see their legal will deemed invalid when they remarry after a divorce