Tax Traps in Pensions and Benefits: Canada’s Hidden Risks

Pensions and employee benefit arrangements offer significant tax advantages—but also carry complex rules where small missteps can trigger major tax consequences. This 1-hour webinar highlights the most common tax traps across pension plans, benefit plans, and trust structures, including RPPs, RRSPs, RCAs, EBPs, and employee life and health trusts (ELHTs). It focuses on how classification, funding, and drafting choices can unexpectedly bring arrangements within anti-avoidance regimes such as salary deferral arrangement (SDA) rules or constructive receipt principles.

The session also examines key compliance and planning risks in benefit trusts, including ELHT qualification requirements and CRA positions on designated employee benefits, alongside a practical case study on securing retiree benefits without creating adverse tax exposure. Attendees will gain clear, practical guidance on structuring and maintaining pension and benefit arrangements to avoid reassessment, penalties, and unintended tax outcomes.

What You Will Learn:

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

• Dodge the OAS Clawback: Understand the Old Age Security recovery tax threshold and learn legal strategies to keep your income below the danger zone.
• Optimize CPP & OAS Timing: Analyze the long-term tax implications of taking your Canada Pension Plan and OAS at age 60, 65, or 70.
• Manage the RRSP/RRIF "Meltdown": Navigate the mandatory conversion of RRSPs to RRIFs at age 71 without bumping yourself into a punishing marginal tax bracket.
• Master Pension Income Splitting: Learn how to effectively split eligible pension income with a spouse or common-law partner to drastically lower your household tax bill.
• Uncover Estate Tax Traps: Understand what happens to your registered accounts (and the massive tax bill left to your estate) upon passing, and how to mitigate it.
• Navigate LIRAs and LIFs: Decode the rigid rules surrounding Locked-In Retirement Accounts and Life Income Funds.