On March 22, 2017, Finance Minister Bill Morneau tabled the 2017
Federal Budget. As in prior years, there was much anticipation
leading up to the announcement as many speculated on the tax
measures that would be announced. Among these speculated measures
were changes to the taxation of capital gains and the stock option
deduction, the latter of which was mentioned in the Liberal
Party's Tax Platform leading up to the 2015 federal election.
However, these particular items were not mentioned in the Budget.
Our highlights of this year's Federal Budget are summarized
below.
Private Corporation Tax Planning
The government plans on reviewing certain tax planning
strategies involving high-income individuals and private
corporations, which the government believes may result in these
individuals receiving unfair tax advantages. The Budget
specifically referred to the following three tax planning
strategies:
