LTE about the Overreach on ‘Bare Trusts’ and Its Impact on Canadians

Dear Editor

It seems Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has decided that it needs to pause the requirements to report T3s and Schedule 15 on “Bare Trusts,” for the 2023 tax year.  A number of people are over-joyed with this “pause.”  They shouldn’t be.

There should be no clause in the Income Tax Act pertaining to “bare trusts,” and merely because CRA has paused this, for the 2023 tax year, doesn’t mean one doesn’t have to report next year, for the 2024 tax year.

What is most insidious about this is, that if one digs deeper, into this issue of “bare trusts,” they were never meant to be included in the Income Tax Act.  Back in the 1990’s it was part of the Excise Tax Act[1] and did not pertain to the average everyday Canadian. 

Under the Excise Tax Act, “bare trusts,” in the explanatory notes, defined what a “bare trust” was, and if one understands “bare trusts” or any “trust” it requires that there needed to be a “manifestation of an intention to create it,”[2] not merely because a person was joint on accounts with parents and the like.

The other question should be, why are charitable organizations exempt?  Does that include the Trudeau Foundation?  Something seems not right with that, doesn’t it?  I mean couldn’t these entities be just as guilty as anyone else of money laundering, etc.?

What is needed, regarding this issue?  Section 150 subsection “(1.3) – Bare Trusts and arrangements,”[3] of the Income Tax Act, needs to be completely repealed – period. 

If not, there will people having to stop caring for the elderly and the disabled.  There will millions of T3s needed to be issued for absolutely no reason. People’s estate planning will mean nothing and companies will have to issue T3s for any and all interests created in land, etc.  This is all a complete mess and is such an egregious harm to people, in comparison that CRA might find a few who abuse the “trust” system or use a “trust” to launder money.