Trusts, Whether You Want Them or Not

Most of us have heard of wealthy families setting up trusts. We have a vague idea that they’re set up to reduce taxes or provide a controlled income to young beneficiaries. Income taxes on trusts can get complex. But people who set up trusts know what they’re getting into and are usually prepared to pay an accountant. However, as I found out, there’s a type of trust that comes into existence automatically.

When a person dies, their executor must file a final tax return by tax-filing season the next year (or 6 months after death, whichever is later). However, this final tax return only applies to income that arrived before or at the person’s death. There are many easy-to-understand websites that explain these tax rules and basic tax-preparation software can handle these returns.

But what about the income that comes after death? If there is no surviving spouse, it takes a while to distribute assets to beneficiaries. In the meantime, RRSPs, RRIFs, TFSAs, houses, and other assets can produce interest, dividends, and capital gains. Even in the simplest cases, there is usually a $2500 cheque from CPP to cover part of the burial expenses. Someone has to pay taxes on this income.

This is where the trust comes in. After death, the assets in the estate are considered to form a trust. In some cases the executor can get away with having beneficiaries declare the estate’s trust income, but the most tax-efficient way to declare this income is usually with a T3 Trust Income Tax and Information Return.

This is where I ended up after reading dozens of articles on the subject. My sense that it couldn’t possibly be this complicated turned out to be wrong. My late aunt’s estate had 3 slips for a total of $2540 of income. This had me filling out a form with a dozen questions including

“If the trust is a deemed resident trust, is the trust an ‘electing trust’ as defined in section 94?”

“Does the trust qualify as a public trust or public investment trust that has to post information about the trust on the CDS Innovations Inc. web site under section 204.1 of the Income Tax Regulations?”

My aunt’s very simple situation got lumped in with very complex trust arrangements. I filled out the T3 trust return (by hand!) as best I could but got a couple of things wrong. The biggest mistake was filing late. Trusts have only 90 days from year end (end of March) to file. So, this T3 trust return was due a month before the final return.

In the end my mistakes cost a total of $35 in interest and a late-filing penalty. I consider this cost a bargain if it means I’m done with acting as executor. But I have to wonder why this process has to be so difficult.

The most difficult part for me was determining if the T3 trust return was really the correct return to file. CRA’s guide for preparing returns for deceased persons describes returns for rights or things, a partner or proprietor, and income from a graduated rate estate. For a while, I thought I needed to file a return for rights and things. I’d have to rate this guide from CRA “unhelpful” for someone holding 3 little slips.

Surely winding up an average Canadian’s affairs can be simpler while extracting the same tax revenues. It shouldn’t be necessary to hire an accountant to file T3 trust returns for people who just have a few tax slips.