Those of us following the Government of Canada's proposed
tax changes since mid-July, experienced quite the wild ride last
week. Personally speaking, there were highs and lows, days where my
head was spinning thinking of the form the new proposed changes may
take, and, of course, the usual influx of emails from clients and
colleagues asking "so what does this all mean?"
While I wish I had definitive answers, draft legislation was not
released concurrently with last week's announcements and the
six New Releases and seven Backgrounder Briefings
published by the Department of Finance were short on details. That
being said, I will try to summarize last week's announcements
below:
- Dividends paid out of a private corporation to family members
will only be permitted to the extent that a family member can
demonstrate that they have made a "meaningful
contribution" to the business based on any combination of:
labour contributions; capital or equity contributions to
