The proposed introduction of an anti-treaty shopping rule in Canada would impact non-residents looking to invest in the Canadian oil and gas industry in order to obtain capital appreciation. For this and other reasons, yield-based products could become more attractive to non-residents and, particularly, U.S. residents. For instance, non-residents dealing at arm's length with a Canadian corporation can generally capitalize the corporation with high yield debt without being subject to any debt:equity restrictions or Canadian withholding taxes. Consequently, in these circumstances, the Canadian corporation can be leveraged beyond the 1.5:1 debt:equity ratio and non-participating interest payments made to non-resident investors would be deductible by the Canadian corporation and received by such investors without the incidence of Canadian withholding tax.
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