Canada: Relief for bare trusts from new information reporting requirements
Bare trusts will no longer have to meet new trust information reporting obligations for their 2023 tax year
The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) on 28 March 2024 announced that bare trusts will no longer have to meet new trust information reporting obligations for their 2023 tax year unless they are specifically requested to provide these details.
Specifically, the CRA announced that it will not require bare trusts to file a “T3 Trust Income Tax and Information Return” or Schedule 15, “Beneficial Ownership Information of a Trust” for 2023, unless the CRA directly requests a filing. Before this administrative relief, many bare trusts were preparing to file a T3 return for the first time, and report additional beneficial ownership information on each trustee, beneficiary, settlor, and controlling person (e.g., a protector) under new trust reporting requirements that apply for tax years ending after 30 December 2023, subject to limited exceptions.
Note that affected non-bare trusts, including those that were wound-up in 2023, do not qualify for this relief and will still have to report required trust information in their T3 return for their 2023 tax year by 2 April 2024.
Read a March 2024 report prepared by the KPMG member firm in Canada