Canada: Ontario Issues Comfort Letter To Address Effects Of Provincial Surtax On Mutual Fund Trusts

On December 11, Ontario’s Ministry of Finance issued a comfort letter to address the unintended effects of the new provincial surtax which have caused a mismatch of a mutual fund trust’s capital gains refund and the Ontario surtax payable on capital gains retained in the trust.

Mutual fund trusts retaining dividends have historically taken advantage of a dividend tax credit and capital gains tax refund to reduce both the basic personal tax payable by individual […]

By |January 6th, 2015|

United States: IRS Updates Special Tax Notice For Retirement Plans

The Internal Revenue Service has issued Notice 2014-74, updating its safe harbor model notices for use by qualified retirement plans to satisfy the special tax notice requirement under Section 402(f) of the Internal Revenue Code relative to recipients of eligible rollover distributions. The Notice explains why the changes were made and provides updated safe harbor model notices for distributions from both non-Roth and designated Roth accounts.

In general, administrators of qualified retirement plans must provide […]

By |January 6th, 2015|

United States: Reducing Your Taxes Before The End Of The Year

Q. What can I do before the end of the year to reduce my taxes?
A. While there usually are no magic bullets, you should consider the following simple strategies before the end of 2014.

Before the end of the year, inventory assets in your investment portfolio to determine which have lost value since they were purchased. Selling assets at a loss will generate capital losses that offset capital gains and up to $3000 of ordinary […]

By |January 5th, 2015|