Taxation of Corporate Reorganizations

Conference held in Toronto on June 21, 22 & 23, 2000
Chairs: Ronald K. Durand, Stikeman Elliott; Kathleen S.M. Hanly, Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP; Alain Ranger, Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP; and Eric A. Ostfield, Ernst & Young LLP

Book: over 820 pages of original material
CD-ROM: approximately 12 hours of video presentations, plus book content

To purchase, please contact Federated Press.

The burning issues

PANEL – Taxation of corporate reorganizations: current issues and forward trends
Ronald K. Durand, Stikeman Elliott (Panel Chair); Firoz Ahmed, Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP; Edward A. Heakes, Macleod Dixon; and Ronald S. Wilson, Davies, Ward & Beck

• Recent judicial decisions on income splitting
• Application of the public company butterfly rules
• Substituted property rules under the 88(1)(d) bump
• Income trust and other commercial trust mergers
• Merging a REIT with a regular corporation
• Canadian tax treatment of LLCs

Video: 43 minutes • Overheads

Takeovers and tax issues
Jerald M. Wortsman, McCarthy Tétrault

• Basic conditions for application under section 85.1
• Tax planning issues and opportunities in takeovers
• The choice of consideration in a takeover
• Tax planning for the selling shareholders
• Tax planning for the purchaser
• Non-resident purchaser considerations

Video: 41 minutes • Speaker's paper: 14,015 words

Divisive reorganizations or "butterfly" transactions
Brian R. Carr, Fraser Milner Casgrain

• Development/characteristics of the butterfly transaction
• Abuses of the butterfly transaction
• Distribution of property considerations in butterflies
• Consolidated look-through approach
• Revenue Canada's administrative position
• Property becoming property rule

Video: 43 minutes • Speaker's paper: 12,222 words

Debt restructuring
George C. Vandebeek, BDO Dunwoody LLP

• Application and avoidance of debt forgiveness rules
• Debt parking: structure and tax consequences
• Implications of a non-resident acquiring debt at a discount
• Foreclosure issues: tax consequences to creditor/debtor
• Participating loans and deductibility of interest
• Penalties, bonuses and rate reductions

Video: 26 minutes • Speaker's paper: 6435 words

Cross-border affairs

Amalgamations and windups – reorganization of capital
Stephen S. Ruby, Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP

• Application of amalgamation/winding-up bumps
• Prohibited property and prohibited persons rules
• Substituted and specified property definitions
• Safe income crystallization examples
• Safe income crystallization analysis
• Substituted property under subsection 248(5)

Video: 38 minutes • Overheads

Emigration and immigration
Judith E. Harris, Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP

• Branch vs. subsidiary considerations
• Thin capitalization rules: proposed changes
• Branch to subsidiary conversion
• Gaining relief from the branch tax rules
• Corporate immigration/emigration tax issues
• Cross-border mergers: Canadian/U.S. tax considerations

Video: 25 minutes • Speaker's paper: 9437 words

The impact of U.S. state laws on corporate reorganizations
Michel P. Cassier, Hodgson, Russ, Andrews, Woods & Goodyear, LLP

• State and local tax burdens and limitations
• Nexus threshold and case law: physical presence issues
• Tax planning options at the sub-national level
• Requirements for immunity from state income tax
• State taxable income vs. federal taxable income
• State sales and use tax rules

Video: 46 minutes

Cross-border issues – Canadian companies doing business in the U.S.
Ray Kinoshita, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

• Branch vs. subsidiary issues
• Merits of taxable vs. non-taxable U.S. acquisitions
• U.S. reorganization provisions
• Asset and stock acquisition strategies
• Ownership change provisions

Video: 53 minutes

Reorganization of foreign affiliates
Angelo Nikolakakis, Stikeman Elliott

• Foreign affiliate mergers and share exchanges
• How the foreign affiliate rules work and not work
• Foreign affiliate liquidations and top-tier reorganizations
• Divisive and lower-tier reorganizations
• Pre- and post-acquisition reorganizations
• Triangular mergers with a foreign company

Video: 42 minutes

Acquisition strategies

PANEL: The latest tax avoidance rules relating to reorganizations
Terrance A. Sweeney, Borden Ladner Gervais LLP; Gloria Geddes, Smith Lyons; John R. Owen, Thorsteinssons; and John Unger, Torys (Panel Chair)

• General anti-avoidance rule and case law
• Anti-surplus stripping rules
• General anti-avoidance rule exemption
• Current thin capitalization rules
• 2000 Federal Budget proposals
• Purchase bump and sell transactions

Video: 45 minutes • Speaker's paper: 5077 words • Overheads

Common commodity tax issues in corporate reorganizations
Robert G. Kreklewetz, Millar Wyslobicky Kreklewetz

• GST/PST application in share/asset transactions
• Import tax credits in pure share transactions
• GST/PST issues on asset movements
• Commodity tax issues involved in share/debt transactions
• Ontario PST and related party transfers of assets
• GST treatment in amalgamations and windups

Video: 29 minutes • Speaker's paper: 17,952 words

Tax-effective financing of acquisitions
Richard Lewin, Heenan Blaikie

• Tax consequences of financing with equity
• Tax consequences of financing with debt
• Consolidating the purchaser with the target
• Capital and large corporation tax issues
• Issues relating to non-residents
• Financing products and their tax consequences

Video: 50 minutes • Speaker's paper: 11,462 words

Paid-up capital and internal reorganizations
Maureen Y. Berry, Goodman Phillips & Vineberg

• Determining paid-up capital
• Returning paid-up capital to shareholders
• Paid-up capital and acquisition strategies
• Increases to paid-up capital
• Reductions to paid-up capital
• Shifting paid-up capital

Video: 32 minutes • Speaker's paper: 7825 words

Creative tax planning

Pension obligations and reorganizations
Caroline L. Helbronner, Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP

• Regulatory framework applying to pension plans
• Share purchase/sale transaction: pension obligations
• Amalgamation reorganizations: regulatory requirements
• Asset purchase/sale transaction: pension obligations
• Strategies in establishing a new pension plan
• Voluntary and compulsory windup provisions
• Windup and surplus provisions of Ontario's Pension Benefits Act

Video: 34 minutes • Speaker's paper: 5656 words

Structuring foreign affiliates
Catherine A. MacNeill, Davies, Ward & Beck

• Global tax planning for multi-national enterprises
• International competition to attract global capital
• Canadian taxation of foreign operations
• Canadian rules for entity classification
• Holding company regimes and financing affiliates
• Tax havens and harmful tax competition issues

Video: 38 minutes • Overheads

Virtual mergers and strategic alliances
Kenneth J. Snider, Ogilvy Renault

• Joint ventures/partnerships vs. virtual mergers
• The hybrid structure
• Income or dividend access schemes
• The stapled stock transaction
• Canadian/non-Canadian virtual merger transactions
• Miscellaneous tax considerations

Video: 38 minutes • Speaker's paper: 5897 words

Utilization of tax losses
Gerald D. Courage, Miller Thomson LLP

• Triggering accrued losses – the new stop-loss rules
• Depreciable and non-depreciable property rules
• Utilization of losses within a corporate group
• Treatment of tax losses on an acquisition of control
• Loss utilization techniques
• The new affiliated persons rules

Video: 41 minutes • Speaker's paper: 21,577 words

Exchangeable share transactions
Heather I. Kerr, Ernst & Young LLP

• Mechanics of exchangeable share transactions
• Canadian tax consequences of exchangeable shares
• Features of exchange shares
• Ancillary agreements to achieve economic equivalence
• Identifying special shareholder groups
• Post-exchangeable share deal issues

Video: 41 minutes • Speaker's paper: 12,115 words