Proposed Corporate Tax Changes And Your Retirement Plan – Part I

By now you have heard about the proposed tax changes that will affect Canadian business owners. You likely have an idea that these changes will affect your retirement. In this blog post I am going to quantify that effect.

The two biggest changes that will affect retirement planning are the elimination of what the government has labelled income sprinkling – the ability of business owners to extract dividends in the hands of family members, and the elimination of two tax mechanisms called CDA (capital dividend account) and RDTOH (refundable dividend tax on hand). I will address the effects of eliminating CDA and RDTOH in another post. Income sprinkling is an advantage to business owners because it allows them to pay income from their business to their lower income spouse and adult children. The result is that a business owner is able to use more of their business profits to cover personal expenses.

Let’s look at an example of an Ontario business owner who has received the advice to pay themselves dividends and retain all of their retirement savings inside of their corporation.

Their spouse has never worked in the business. They have managed to accumulate $5,000,000 which they invest in a 60% equity – 40% fixed income portfolio. The portfolio has an expected return of 5.05%. They both turn 65 on January 1^st, 2018 and will retire on that date. Neither of them will have any CPP due to a lifetime of taking dividends. They will take OAS at age 65, but most of it will be clawed back. Their retirement plan had always been to each take dividends to fund their $13,000 after-tax monthly spending goal, sharing the tax burden equally.

Under the current rules, when they are able to share the tax burden equally, they will each owe $17,734 at the end of 2018 between provincial tax and federal tax (including OAS claw back). Based on this, they can fund their lifestyle expense and personal tax bill with about $15,000 per month coming from the corporation. A $15,000 monthly draw from the corporate assets results in an 85% probability that the capital in the corporation will be sufficient to fund their expenses until death at age 95. They have built their retirement plan around this number.

	BUSINESS OWNER	SPOUSE	TOTAL
Ordinary Dividends	84,987	84,987	169,974
Eligible Dividends	4,383	4,383	8,766
OAS	6,364	6,364	12,728
Income	95,734	95,734	191,468

Federal Tax	12,504	12,504	25,008
Ontario Tax	5,230	5,230	10,460
Total Tax	17,734	17,734	35,468

After-tax income	78,000	78,000	156,000
Expenses	78,000	78,000	156,000

Under the proposed rules, the spouse will no longer be able to take dividends at their tax rate – they will pay tax on dividends at the highest marginal rate. Due to this, the business owner will take all dividends themselves, using their own tax rates, and doubling the amount of income that they are paying tax on. They will now owe a total of $48,539 in taxes; an additional tax liability of just over $13,000 compared to when they were splitting the income with their spouse. As expected, this creates an after-tax income shortfall if they draw the planned $15,000 per month out of their corporation.

	BUSINESS OWNER	SPOUSE	TOTAL
Ordinary Dividends	169,974	–	169,974
Eligible Dividends	8,767	–	8,767
OAS	6,364	6,364	12,728
Income	185,105	6,364	191,469

Federal Tax	29,666	–	29,666
Ontario Tax	18,873	–	18,873
Total Tax	48,539	–	48,539

After-tax income	136,566	6,364	142,930
Expenses	78,000	78,000	156,000

To cover a $13,000 after-tax income shortfall, they will need to draw nearly $24,000 in additional dividends each year.

	BUSINESS OWNER	SPOUSE	TOTAL
Ordinary Dividends	193,615	–	193,615
Eligible Dividends	8,767	–	8,767
OAS	6,364	6,364	12,728
Income	208,746	6,364	215,110

Federal Tax	35,885	–	35,885
Ontario Tax	23,225	–	23,225
Total Tax	59,110	–	59,110

After-tax income	149,636	6,364	156,000
Expenses	78,000	78,000	156,000

This additional tax expense reduces the probability of them successfully funding their after-tax spending goal through retirement from 85% to 65%. To increase the probability of meeting their retirement income goals back to 85%, they will either need to retire four years later, at age 69, or they will need to find an additional $600,000 to invest inside of their corporation today.

The proposed elimination of income sprinkling has the potential to materially affect the retirement plans of anyone that had been counting on their corporate structure to reduce their tax bill through retirement. Of course, these are still proposals. As of now there is no action to be taken. In my next post, I will discuss the effects of eliminating CDA and RDTOH.

Benjamin Felix
Portfolio Manager, Head of Research, MBA, CFA, CFP, CIM

Benjamin Felix is the Head of Research at PWL Capital, a Canadian wealth management firm known for its publicly available thought leadership. PWL creates resources for Canadian investors including white papers, model portfolios, and research content. Benjamin co-hosts a podcast, the Rational Reminder, and is the host of a YouTube channel which together reach hundreds of thousands of people in Canada and around the world. Benjamin joined PWL Capital in 2013 after completing a degree in mechanical engineering and an MBA in financial management. He is a CFA charterholder and a CFP professional.

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