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Seminars

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Moodys LLP Tax Advisors offers regular seminars aimed at CA, CMA, CGA and legal professionals on current tax topics. Seminars are intended to be at a high technical level where the latest tax planning ideas and tax legislative information are relayed to our audience.

2010 tax seminar topics

January 12 - US Tax Compliance Matters

  1. Overview
    1. Taxation of residents compared to non-residents
    2. Definition of “resident”
    3. Treaty benefits
  2. Non-Residents – Form 1040NR
    1. Who must file?
    2. Filing deadlines and extensions
    3. FDAP income (fixed, determinable, annual, periodic payments)
      1. Interest, dividends, royalties, other investment income
      2. Rental income
    4. ECI income (effectively connected with a US trade or business)
      1. Employment income
      2. Partnership income
      3. Other income
    5. Closer Connection Exception Statement
    6. Reporting Treaty Positions – Form 8833
    7. Withholding Issues
  3. Residents and US Citizens – Form 1040
    1. Who must file?
    2. Filing deadlines and extensions
    3. Investment income
      1. Interest, including tax exempt bonds
      2. Dividends, including qualified dividends
    4. Self-employment income
    5. Partnership, rental and other pass-through income
      1. Passive activity loss rules
      2. Rental real estate, including depreciation and capitalization rules
      3. Selected K-1 (partnership, S-corporation, and trust income) issues
    6. Foreign exchange gains and losses
    7. Social Security income (treaty treatment)
    8. Domestic (non-foreign) trust income
      1. Grantor trusts
      2. Non-grantor trusts
    9. Itemized deductions
    10. Foreign Tax Credits
    11. Reporting and taxation of RRSPs
  4. Foreign Bank Account Reporting (FBAR) – Form 90-22.1
    1. Who must file?
    2. Filing deadlines and extensions
    3. Penalties
    4. Accounts that must be reported
    5. Recent changes to FBAR rules
  5. State Tax Returns
    1. Employment income
    2. Investment and other income
  6. Estate and Gift Tax Returns
    1. Citizen/domiciliary estate tax returns – Form 706
    2. Nonresident estate tax returns – Form 706-NA
    3. Gift tax returns – Form 709
  7. Other Income Tax Returns
    1. Partnership – Form 1065
    2. Corporation – Form 1120
    3. S-Corporation – Form 1120-S
    4. Domestic trust and estate (administration) returns – Form 1041
  8. Special Compliance Issues
    1. CFCs (Controlled Foreign Corporations) – Form 5471
    2. Foreign Partnerships – Form 8865
    3. Foreign Disregarded Entities – Form 8858
    4. Foreign Trusts and Foreign Gifts – Form 3520 and 3520-A
      1. Definition of “foreign” trust
      2. Foreign grantor and foreign non-grantor trusts
      3. Reporting of foreign gifts
    5. PFICs (Passive Foreign Investment Companies) - Form 8621
    6. Non-filers and first-time filers
    7. Taxation of US LLCs (Limited Liability Companies)
      1. US treatment
      2. Canadian treatment

February 9 - The Top 20 Common Income Tax Mistakes Made By Accountants - Pitfalls And Fixes

As a tax specialist firm, we often find tax errors that are made in planning and/or preparation of tax returns or other tax compliance matters. Some of these errors are minor and can easily be corrected. Others are devastating and can lead to disastrous results.

This session will focus on the Top 20 common income tax mistakes made by accountants that we come across. No …. we are not going to list those mistakes (and possible fixes) here … you will have to attend the session!

May 18 - Boot Camp On Tax For Non-Finance/Non-Tax Specialists

  1. Canadian Tax System
    1. Tax bases
    2. Taxable entities
    3. Federal tax
    4. Provincial tax
    5. Tax rates
    6. Tax
  2. History of Federal Tax Legislation
    1. History of the Act
    2. Structure of the Act
    3. Other tax legislation
  3. Philosophy
    1. Qualitative characteristics of the tax systems
  4. Liability for Tax
    1. Charging provisions
    2. Residence
    3. Taxation of non-residents
    4. Income; economics; accounting; tax
    5. Net income for tax purposes
  5. Principles of Tax Planning
    1. General philosophy
    2. Tax avoidance
    3. GAAR
    4. REOP
    5. Tax deferral
    6. Income splitting
    7. Risk analysis
    8. Examples
  6. Compliance and Enforcement
    1. Source deductions
    2. Returns and payments
      1. Individuals
      2. Corporations
      3. Trusts
      4. Partnerships
    3. Information returns
    4. Foreign reporting requirements
    5. Refunds
    6. Assessments
    7. Appeals
    8. Collection and enforcement
    9. Fairness package
  7. GST
    1. Transaction tax concepts
    2. Commercial activity
    3. Concept of supply
      1. General
      2. Categories
      3. Consideration
    4. Liability for GST
      1. Residence
      2. Registration
      3. Remit
      4. Association
      5. Exemptions
    5. Input tax credits
      1. Fully taxable supplies
      2. Zero rated supplies
      3. Exempt supplies
    6. Examples
    7. Relief for small business
      1. Small supplier exemption
      2. Quick method
      3. Simplified ITC method
    8. Compliance
      1. Returns
      2. Payments
      3. Refunds and rebates
      4. Books and records
      5. Appeals
      6. GAAR
  8. Employment Income
    1. Definition
    2. General rules
    3. Inclusion
    4. Deductions
    5. Restrictions on deduction
    6. Examples
  9. Business Income
    1. Definition
    2. General rules
    3. Inclusions
    4. Deductions
    5. Restrictions on deductions
    6. Examples
  10. Property Income
    1. Definition
    2. General rules
    3. Inclusions
    4. Deductions
    5. Restrictions on deductions
    6. Examples
  11. Capital Gains
    1. Definition
    2. General rules
    3. Dispositions
    4. Proceeds of disposition
    5. Adjusted cost base
    6. Calculation of capital gains (loss)
    7. Identical properties
    8. Reserves
    9. Replacement property deferral
    10. Small business deferral
    11. ECG exemption
    12. Principal residence
    13. Personal use property
    14. Listed personal property
    15. Foreign currency
    16. Options
    17. “Stop-loss” rules
  12. Retirement
    1. RRSPs
    2. RPPs
    3. RRIFs
    4. DPSPs
    5. PSPs
    6. RCAs
    7. SDAs
    8. IPPs
    9. TFSA
  13. Beware
    1. Related party transfers
      1. Gifts
      2. Rollovers
      3. Income attribution
      4. Leaving Canada
      5. Entering Canada
      6. Death and taxes
  14. Corporate Tax
    1. Integration
    2. Business income
    3. Geographic allocation
    4. Large corporate tax
    5. SH deduction
    6. M & P deduction
    7. Foreign tax credits
    8. Investment tax credits
    9. SR&ED
    10. Property income
    11. RDTOH system
    12. Part IV tax
    13. Decision to incorporate
    14. Salary vs dividends – GRIP, LRIP
  15. Corporate Rollovers and Reorganizations
    1. S. 85
    2. S. 86
    3. S. 87
    4. S. 88
  16. Partnerships
    1. Definition
    2. Flow thru treatment
    3. Partnership interest
    4. Limited partnership “at risk” rules
    5. Transfers to and from a partnership – 97(2)
    6. ACB of partnership interests
  17. Trusts
    1. Personal trust defined
    2. Classification of trusts
    3. Rollovers to trusts
    4. Rollovers to beneficiaries
    5. Income calculations
    6. Income allocations to beneficiaries
    7. Tax payable
    8. Tax returns
    9. Tax planning ideas
  18. Tax Shelters
    1. Legal forms
    2. Resource investments
    3. Rental properties
    4. Evaluation
    5. Risk assessment
  19. International
    1. Source vs residence
    2. Relief of double tax
    3. Tax information exchange
    4. Treaties
      1. Objectives
      2. Solutions
    5. TIEAs
      1. Objectives
      2. Solutions
    6. Residence
      1. Factual
      2. Deemed
      3. Dual
      4. Tie breaker rules
    7. Non Residents earning Canadian Source
      1. Employment income
      2. Property (passive) income
      3. Business income
      4. Disposition of TCP
    8. Foreign Source
      1. Employment income
      2. Business income
      3. Investment income
      4. Capital gains
      5. FAPI
      6. Transfer pricing

June 15 - "Tales from the Tax Court" - A Morning with The Honourable Donald Bowman / Case Law Update

The Honourable Donald George Hugh Bowman, B.A., LL.B. was born in Guelph, Ontario and grew up on his father's farm. He attended Guelph Collegiate and Victoria University where he studied modern languages. He also attended the Ontario College of Education and the Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto. He was a teacher at the Märkisches Gymnasium, Iserlohn, Nordrhein/Westfalen, Germany and at the Fergus District High School and Delta Secondary School in Hamilton. He was called to the Bar of Ontario in 1962 and joined the Federal Department of Justice, Tax Litigation Section, in 1962 and was appointed Director of Tax Litigation in 1968. He joined the Toronto law firm of Stikeman, Elliott, Robarts & Bowman in 1971 and was a partner until his appointment to the Tax Court of Canada. He was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1974 and has been a member of the New York Bar since 1982. He was appointed Judge of the Tax Court of Canada in 1991 and Associate Chief Judge in February 2000. He was appointed Chief Justice of the Tax Court of Canada in 2005. Upon his retirement from the court he joined Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP as counsel on August 7, 2008. He has been married to Marjorie Bowman since August 11, 1956 and has three children, Laurel, Patrick and Victoria, and five grandchildren.

The Honourable Justice Bowman will be speaking to us about his experiences in the Tax Court and provide advice to practitioners in the face of pending tax litigation. Following Justice Bowman’s talk, we will present recent tax cases of interest that practitioners should be aware of.

September 14 - Owner-Manager Update

  1. Federal Budget and other tax changes of relevance during 2010
  2. Tax Rate Changes
    1. Overall review
    2. Updates
  3. Eligible Dividends
    1. Legislative updates
    2. CRA Technical Interpretations
    3. Bonus vs. No-Bonus
    4. Estate planning overview using eligible dividends
  4. What’s New in Case Law that Affects Owner-Manager Taxation?
    1. Brief review of recent case law
  5. Planning
    1. Review structures/shareholdings
    2. Recent planning ideas
    3. Loss utilization
    4. Other
  6. Non-voting Shareholdings for Professional Corporations
    1. How does it work?
    2. Methodologies to insert non-voting shareholders
    3. Tips and traps

October 26 - US Estate, Gift and Generation Skipping Transfer Tax (“GST”) Tax Planning

  1. Overview
    1. US transfer taxes
      1. Estate tax
      2. Gift tax
      3. Generation Skipping Transfer Tax (GST)
    2. Taxation of US citizens and domiciliaries compared to non-residents
    3. Definition of “resident” for US transfer tax purposes
    4. Treaty benefits
  2. Planning for Non-residents
    1. US situs property
      1. Property defined as US situs
      2. Property defined as non-US situs
      3. Areas of uncertainty
    2. Treaty benefits for Canadians not resident in the US
    3. Options for ownership of US real estate, corporate stock and other US situs property
      1. Canadian corporations
      2. Partnerships
      3. Trusts
      4. Non-recourse loans
      5. Use of life insurance
  3. Planning for US Citizens and Domiciliaries – Basics
    1. Unified credit
      1. Portion of estate that passes tax free
      2. Effectively using unified credit through family trusts
    2. Marital deduction planning
      1. Outright dispositions
      2. Dispositions to trusts – QTIP and GPOA trusts
  4. Planning for Families with US and Canadian Family Members
    1. US citizens married to Canadians (Wealthy American)
      1. Qualified Domestic Trusts (QDOTs)
      2. Annual exclusion gifting and loans
    2. US citizens married to Canadians (Wealthy Canadian) and Canadians with US citizen children or grandchildren
      1. Dynasty trusts
      2. Estate freeze issues
  5. Valuation Issues
    1. Valuation date and alternate valuation date
    2. Valuation discounting of business interests
      1. Operating businesses
      2. Investment entities – Family Limited Partnerships (FLPs) and family limited liability companies
    3. Valuation of real estate
    4. Chapter 14 special valuation rules
  6. Lifetime Transfer Planning
    1. Annual exclusion gifting
    2. Education and medical expenses
    3. Intentionally defective grantor trusts
    4. GRITs, GRATs and other transfer techniques
    5. Qualified Personal Residence Trusts (QPRTs)
  7. Life Insurance Planning – Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts (ILITs)
  8. Planning to transfer retirement benefits, IRAs, RRSPs at death
  9. Special Issues
    1. Charitable giving – CRATs, CRUTs, CLTs, etc.
    2. Canadian citizens resident, but not domiciled in the US
    3. Foreign trusts

November 23 - Year End Tax Planning

  1. Remuneration Issues
    1. Salary vs dividends (GRIP, LRIP)
    2. 15(2) issues
    3. Bonus vs no bonus
    4. RDTOH issues
    5. CDA
  2. Section 78 – Unpaid Amounts
    1. Tips and traps
    2. Dow Chemical and other cases
    3. CRA administrative policy
  3. Charitable Donations
    1. What’s a gift?
    2. Gift of flow-thru shares
    3. Charitable tax shelters (careful!)
  4. Child Care Expenses
  5. Moving Expenses
  6. RRSP/TFSA’s, etc.
  7. Income Splitting Opportunities
  8. Other


Location

All seminars will be held at The Rotary House at Calgary Stampede Park.

Map (PDF)

Time

Tuesdays 7:30 am - 11:30 am
A light breakfast will be served

Cost

$300+GST per seminar, or purchase a corporate passport (designed for group savings, the passport is transferable between all accounting/legal professionals within a firm - cost for seven seminars is $1800+GST)

Registration

Download and fill out the registration form (PDF). Fax to 403 693 5101 or email to seminars@moodystax.com. You must register no later than five business days prior to the seminar date.

Other seminars of interest

Click to go to the Calgary CFA Society events calendar