Dates and location
Pricing
Hours
Dates and location
Pricing
Hours
Description
Participants will build a practical foundation in the taxation of Canadian trusts and their beneficiaries, from basic trust law concepts through core income‑tax rules and compliance. Participants will work through common scenarios to identify risks, recognize planning opportunities, and complete fundamental filings with confidence.
Topics include:
- Trust essentials: parties, legal nature, creation, and distinction from other relationships.
- Recognizing when a trust structure is appropriate and high‑level design choices (settlor, trustees, beneficiaries, protector, letters of wishes).
- Types of trusts and common family/estate variants (inter vivos, testamentary, spousal/alter‑ego/joint‑partner, minors).
- Taxation of trusts: residency, year‑end, income inclusions, designations, distributions, 21‑year rule, AMT, and property transfers.
- Taxation of beneficiaries: amounts payable, designations, non‑resident issues, TOSI touchpoints.
- Trusts and estates: GRE basics, rollovers/elections, and post‑mortem planning highlights.
- Administration and compliance: records, filings, due dates, installments, and amending returns.
NOTE: This course description has been revised and reflects updates for 2026. If you have any questions, please contact pdevents@cpaontario.ca.
Key Takeaways
By the end of this course, participants should be able to:
- Explain key trust‑law concepts (parties, three certainties, creation and variation) and how they interact with income‑tax rules.
- Describe core taxation principles for trusts (residency, income inclusions, flow‑through, 21‑year rule, AMT touchpoints) and their effect on beneficiaries.
- Identify attribution‑rule considerations and other risk areas when designing, funding, and administering trusts.
- Outline foundational planning uses of trusts (e.g., family, spousal/alter‑ego, estate contexts) and recognize common pitfalls.
- Complete essential compliance steps for T3 filings, elections, documentation, and basic post‑mortem considerations.
Who Will Benefit
- Practitioners who prepare trust returns or advise clients using trust structures and want a solid fundamentals refresher.
- Professionals seeking to recognize common trust‑related risks and foundational planning opportunities.
Prerequisite(s)
- Working knowledge of income‑tax rules for individuals and corporations (recommended).
How to Access the Course
This course is delivered as a live webinar. To receive verifiable CPD hours, you must attend the session live. We recommend joining at least 5 minutes before the scheduled start time. For the best interactive experience, please use a computer equipped with a camera and microphone.
A reminder email with the Zoom link and course details will be sent two business days before the session. If you do not receive it, please check your spam or junk folder.
The same information, including any available materials, will also be posted in advance on our Blackboard LMS.
Registration, cancellation, withdrawal and all other CPA Ontario PD policies can be found here.
Speaker(s)
Tricia MacPherson is a Senior Tax Manager at Welch LLP where she specializes in tax compliance matters for individuals, corporations and trusts as well as estate planning and corporate structuring for owner-managers and private corporations. Tricia has been serving small and medium-sized businesses in public practice for 20 years and specializing in tax for over 6 years. Tricia has completed the CICA In-Depth Tax Program, Parts I, II and III and is a member of the Canadian Tax Foundation.