Tax Effective Strategies 

 

Withdrawal Strategies

• Your every-day living expenses will be funded through withdrawal strategies, such as:
  • Your registered withdrawals being completed at the tail-end of the year (beginning of December)
  • Every-day living expenses including travel, renovations and vehicles will be withdrawn from your cash account throughout the year 
  • Your needs will be anticipated with best efforts and trades to fund will be done accordingly ensuring the equities are not sold during down markets and you do not have too many funds sitting idle and not working for you.
  • Review of your Old Age Security (OAS) - whether we are able to reduce your claw back
• Canada Pension Plan (CPP), Old Age Security (OAS) and Registered Withdrawals
  • Coordination of your retirement income sources and the timing of electing to receive benefits will be advised upon and periodically reviewed.

Portfolio Management

• The placement of your overall holdings in terms of tax efficiency will be an important consideration in managing your portfolio. 
• For example:
  • The majority of your fixed income holdings, taxed at the highest rate, and foreign dividend exposure, which is not as tax-efficient as Canadian dividends, will be concentrated in your registered accounts. 
  • In addition, to the extent possible, your Canadian dividend exposure will be held in your taxable accounts to achieve the dividend tax credit benefits. 
  • Finally realizing capital gains will be minimized within the confines of good judgement within your taxable accounts. 
• Tax is never a primary driver of investment decisions; however, your portfolio management team will work behind the scenes to enhance your after-tax return as this has true impact on your success.

Philanthropic Strategies

• Family Foundations
  • Basically, by setting up a Family Foundation, you will deposit a lump sum and you will receive a full charitable donation tax credit in the year of set-up
  • Flexibility in donations over several years
  • An ability to have the funds grow tax free given the charitable status of the foundation
• Donations in-kind:
  • A double benefit is created: the charitable donation tax credit and the elimination of the taxation on the capital gain of the shares/units donated.

Income Balancing

• With taxation, income balancing/splitting is an important consideration due to our graduated income tax bracket regime in Canada.  Where there is an imbalance, a consideration of a prescribed rate loan may be useful and in addition electing to split certain types of income can be considered (CPP, registered withdrawals (after age 65) and pension income.

 

Kindly note clients are advised to seek advice regarding their particular circumstances from their personal tax and legal advisors.