News for residents of the “11th province”: Canadians abroad.
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Canada To Destroy 38,000 Survivor Testimonies
Canada will destroy 38,000 residential school survivor testimonies in September of next year. The records contain more than six times as many accounts as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission collected.
The testimonies came from a compensation process that promised survivors confidentiality and so in 2017, the Supreme Court ruled that the promise required the records to be destroyed after a 10-year window. Survivors are permitted to ask for the preservation of their own accounts, but journalist Connie Walker and lawyer Kimberly Murray say many don’t know that there’s a deadline. Records belonging to survivors who have since died aren’t able to be saved by their families.
The files may identify abusers, or preserve accounts of Indigenous life before children were taken from their communities. They were collected in order to help decide compensation, not to build a public archive or pursue criminal cases.
Read more: The Narwhal
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New Grocery Benefit Skips Most Expats
Canada's renamed grocery benefit paid out again on October 5, but most Canadians living abroad did not qualify. The rule is based on tax residence, not passport.
The Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit replaced the GST/HST credit in July. It uses the same eligibility rules, comes automatically after a tax return and is tax-free. Maximum annual payments are $679 for a single person, $890 for a couple and $234 for every child under 19. The benefit starts shrinking once adjusted family net income rises above $46,432.
The catch for those overseas is that generally you need to be a Canadian resident for tax purposes in the month before a payment and at the start of the payment month. Filing a Canadian return or keeping a Canadian bank account doesn’t make a non-resident eligible.
Read more: MoneySense
Canadian Stocks Get a Longer Trading Day
Canadian shares started trading longer hours recently as CIX opened full production coverage from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern. The new alternative market trades tickers listed on the TSX, TSX Venture Exchange, Cboe Canada and the Canadian Securities Exchange.
CIX plans another change to the hours later this year when its ASPEN markets will run from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern (subject to operational readiness). The extra hours will at first be limited to TSX and Cboe-listed shares. It has also proposed moving toward 23-hour weekday trading, but that idea still has regulatory hurdles.
The current change gives Canadians in Europe a trading window that runs later into the evening and in much of Asia, the earlier opening arrives at a slightly less punishing hour. Note that thinner trading outside the usual 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. session can mean fewer buyers and sellers (so bigger spreads, possibly worse prices), but its now there if you need it.
Read more: CIX Trading / The Globe and Mail
Family Discount Can Come With a Tax Bill
Selling a Canadian home to your children for a “friendly” price doesn’t make that a fair market value. If a property worth $1 million changes hands for $750,000, the missing $250,000 is still likely to be of great interest to your friends at the CRA.
The tax treatment does depends on the property. For example, a home that qualified as the seller’s primary residence for every year of ownership will generally be covered by what’s known as the principal residence exemption. A rental, cottage, investment property or former home is often a different story. Read on for more deets.
Read more: MoneySense