💼 Corporate Wealth Access
Are you paying unnecessary tax when accessing wealth from your corporation?
Explore planning ideas that may help you access corporate wealth more tax-efficiently for your personal financial goals.
📖 ITA 20(1)(e) & ITA 15(1)
Could ITA 20(1)(e) and ITA 15(1) create planning opportunities—or costly mistakes—when borrowing personally while using corporate assets?
Understand how these Income Tax Act provisions may affect certain financing and corporate wealth planning strategies.
🏡 Home, Retirement & Family Legacy
How can physicians access corporate wealth more efficiently for home purchases, retirement income, investment growth, and family legacy planning?
Explore planning concepts designed to align corporate wealth with your long-term personal and family objectives.
⚖️ The Risk of Action vs. Inaction
What are the risks of making changes, and what are the risks of continuing to do the same thing year after year?
Evaluate both the risks of changing your current structure and the risks of maintaining the same approach as your corporate wealth continues to grow.
Below is a preview of the tailor-made 10-page Advice Memo for Dr. Client, outlining key issues, proposed solutions, legal structures, and second-stage opportunities. If you’d like a customized Advice Memo, book a complimentary 30-minute Zoom consultation with our relationship advisor for tailored insights.
Dr. Client spent decades building wealth. However, when the financial structure is not properly designed, multiples of $1,000,000 may quietly disappear through taxation. Dr. Client’s situation is a common case among high earning corporate owners who consult us to diagnose their financial structure.
1. Mortgage structure problem. Interest on a principal residence mortgage is not tax deductible under Income Tax Act s.18(1)(b) and the interest deductibility principles under s.20(1)(c).
If Dr. Client wants $1,000,000 personally to repay the mortgage, the corporation must distribute about $1,900,000 due to the approximately 48 percent tax on non eligible dividends. About $960,000 may be lost to tax before reducing the mortgage. Even after this cost, the mortgage interest remains non deductible because the borrowing relates to a principal residence rather than an investment.
2. Gradual withdrawal problem. Some advisors recommend withdrawing smaller amounts over time.
Dr. Client’s corporation earns about $1,000,000 annually and distributes about $200,000 in dividends plus a $150,000 salary. If $200,000 is withdrawn annually, this equals $4,000,000 over 20 years.
However, the larger loss is compounding. At 7 percent annual growth, the lost reinvestment may reach about $1.3 million by year 10 and about $3.9 million by year 20.

3. Some advisors recommend retaining funds inside the corporation. If Dr. Client retains about $500,000 annually, the corporation may accumulate roughly $10,000,000 over 20 years.
If this capital earns about 5 percent interest, passive income inside a corporation may face tax approaching 50 percent under the passive income regime governed by ITA s.123.3 and an additional dividend tax of about 48 percent may apply under s.82 and s.121. The impact may look like this:
In year 1, the shareholder may receive about $270,000 after tax, while paying approximately $12,000 in passive income tax and $240,000 in dividend tax. By year 10, the after tax value may reach about $3.2 million, with roughly $140,000 paid in passive income tax and $3.2 million in dividend tax. By year 20, the shareholder may receive about $7.7 million after tax, while total taxes paid may reach approximately $8.4 million. As capital grows, tax leakage grows with it.

4. Retirement withdrawal assumption. Some advisors suggest waiting until retirement.
Assume Dr. Client needs $200,000 after tax annually. With a personal tax rate around 40 percent, the corporation may need to distribute about $330,000 annually, creating about $130,000 of tax each year under the dividend taxation rules in ITA s.82 and s.121. Over 30 years of retirement, annual tax may be about $130,000, resulting in total tax of approximately $3.9 million.
5. If funds remain in the corporation or RRSP or RRIF at death, deemed disposition rules apply under ITA s.70(5). Corporate assets may face multiple tax layers, and RRSP or RRIF may be treated as 100 percent taxable income. Even when withdrawals are delayed, tax leakage does not disappear. It spreads across decades, creating about $1,600,000 tax during retirement and another $1,500,000 at the estate level, totaling about $3,200,000.









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