Service Areas

Trust and Estate Taxation

The area of trusts and estates practice is a complex one, with many opportunities for tax planning. These tax-planning opportunities include

• minimizing tax through income splitting;
• planning for deferral of capital gains;
• planning to minimize taxes on death and to an estate through the use of special elections;
• evaluating certain non-resident strategies to "export" the trust to a favourable tax jurisdiction;
• tax planning for the division of the trust assets, either to beneficiaries or to other trusts;
• evaluating the trust's capital gains tax position and developing a capital gains minimization strategy (which may include an estate-freeze type of reorganization);
• tax planning for immigration trusts that are nearing the end of their five-year tax-exemption period.

We can also prepare or review tax returns that involve complex trust situations.