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“Diversification will always disappoint” is an old adage in the finance industry. It encompasses the feelings that we all get when we near the end of a month, quarter, or year and see that some investments did better than others. In hindsight, investors can always look back and think, “It was obvious markets would be smooth, and I should only have invested in US stocks,” or, “I should have known that a virus was going to have a dramatic impact on the global economy, and I should have held more bonds just for the first quarter of Q1 2020.” But in reality, nobody knows what direction the market is going to head over the next three days or three months. Markets are not perfectly efficient, but they do an excellent job rapidly pricing in news and expectations.

Events over a short period that move the market up or down by 10% are by definition unknowable–otherwise every investor would have already adjusted and moved out of those positions destined to fall. Before stocks fell by 2.5% and oil by 12% on Nov 26 on news of a new COVID variant, we all knew there was some non-zero chance of new variants arriving, but that didn’t stop the market from rising over the last twelve months. The sudden adjustment was a pricing in that there is now a known new variant, and it could be more contagious than previous versions of the COVID-19 virus. As information emerged that the new variant may be less dangerous, markets resumed their rally into the end of the year.

That’s not to say some investors will not do better than the market over any given period. Perhaps they have an outlook that differed from the overall market and were correct in that instance. But over time, consistently outperforming the market has shown to be difficult, if not impossible for money managers around the globe.

With 2021 now behind us, we can start to look back and see that many areas of the market performed very well with relatively low levels of volatility, such as US large cap growth stocks or Canadian energy companies. Other areas did well compared to normal annual growth rates, such as US small companies or international developed companies, but underperformed the star US or Canadian counterparts. And then some areas were fairly flat: alternatives that have downside protection or market neutral target exposures, gold being slightly down despite the highest inflation of the last 30 years, emerging markets struggling as China adjusts the business operating environment, fixed income being flat to negative with bond markets seeing slight decreases in value as interest rates ticked up and swallowed partly starting yields. Following a significant run up in stock markets from April 2020 to the start of 2021, any rebalancing that was done was prudent from a risk management standpoint but punitive from a total return standpoint when stocks continued to outpace bonds throughout the year. We will discuss individual positions which were above, in line, or below expectations in a second part of this paper coming shortly.

It’s natural to look back and wonder if a small allocation to emerging markets is useful when the area trailed the S&P 500 by 30% over the last 12 months. But we must also look back at previous times like in 2006 when it led by 20%. Or with gold, which trailed broad Canadian stocks by over 30% the last 12 months yet outperformed by 40% during the five weeks of the initial COVID impact on markets in 2020. Likewise, tilts towards smaller, more innovative companies, which trailed large cap stocks in 2021 by a whopping 40% but had outperformed in 2020 by an even greater 50%.

All of these pieces will have years in which investors are thankful for them, and others where they are cursed. Part of setting up a long-term financial plan and goals is determining what type of an asset mix can best help you accomplish those aims. By having exposures to a variety of areas in terms of geographies and strategies, it’s absolutely a guarantee that you will underperform the best asset class each year, whatever that may be, US growth stocks or Canadian financials for example. But there will be other years when those particular areas see significant corrections and having those other elements of diversification is what can keep a portfolio on track for its long-term goals.

Looking at the attached data from JP Morgan’s most recent Guide to the Markets, they show a variety of asset classes’ performance over the previous 15 years. What sticks out most is just how random the year-to-year returns seem to be. This chart is often referred to as a ‘Skittles’ chart because it looks almost as if you took a bag of Skittles and dumped it on a table. You wouldn’t expect all the red or yellow to land near each other. Areas like Commodities or REITs which were the worst performers in 2020, came out on top in 2021.

Over this timeframe you can see that US stocks have done very well, averaging nearly 10% per year in returns, while cash and bonds have been in the low single digits. Yet in years like 2008, allocations to those lower volatility portions of the portfolio paid significant dividends. The diversified portfolio they show is a combination of roughly 55% in global stocks, 35% in bonds, and 10% in alternatives, and is gross of any fund implementation or advisory fees. While the annualized return comes in below US stocks and REITs, the volatility during the same timeframe is only about half—meaning the highs and lows were muted and a portfolio was able to continue growing for a larger portion of the time.

Going forward into 2022

We were recently included in a Bloomberg article about how family members would discuss some of the successes of 2021 around the Thanksgiving table. We mentioned, “Let’s all be thankful for the tremendous returns we’ve seen in tech stocks and numerous other areas of the market this year, but not forget that a slice of humble pie may be what we’re eating next year if we’re too certain of our predictions to come.” Without trying to predict how market performance will play out, are there things that we can look at when making any adjustments to portfolios in the near term?

A few things stick out when you simply take a look at valuations around stock and bond markets. The first being that international stocks are trading at dramatically lower multiples in terms of price to earnings than their US counterparts. Does it make sense that two companies should trade at dramatically different ratios simply because they are domiciled in different countries? Take Hersey and Nestle for example. Both sell a lot of chocolate in North America. Both likely have relatively similar input costs in terms of cocoa and labor. There may be some small tax differences, but should they trade at a significantly different price-to-earnings ratio just because of their country of domicile? The chart to the right shows that International stocks are currently trading at a very large discount to US stocks in terms of their relative price to earnings ratios.

The next chart shows the periods of time when US stock markets have outperformed international markets or vice versa. The US market has been outperforming for more than the last decade, and there is no set rule that says that cannot continue for longer into the future. But if we look back over time, it seems reasonable to expect that different areas of global stocks would lead performance during different periods, as we’ve seen in the many decades prior to this.

International: Price-to-earnings discount vs. U.S.

MSCI AC World ex-U.S. vs. S&P 500 Indices, next 12 months

Source: FactSet, MSCI, Standard & Poor’s, J.P. Morgan Asset Management,Guide to the Markets – U.S. Data are as of December 31, 2021

MSCI EAFE and MSCI USA relative performance

U.S. dollar, total return, cumulative outperformance*

Source: FactSet, MSCI, Standard & Poor’s, J.P. Morgan Asset Management. *Cycles of outperformance include a qualitative component to determine turning points in leadership. Guide to the Markets – U.S. Data are as of December 31, 2021

There is nothing to say that those deviations can’t continue, or even grow further apart, but when we take a long-term perspective on investing, the evidence would suggest that yesterday’s winners will not always be tomorrow’s winners. Knowing when that winning streak will end is also challenging. And thus, another rationale for maintaining a diversified approach over time.

What can we be doing now?

On the conservative side of portfolios, we’ve long discussed the fixed income piece as a volatility dampener and a shelter for when stocks get rocky, looking to limit the downside of stock market corrections which can be severe and (in downturns other than 2020) can often take years to get back to positive territory. However, gone are the days when investors could allocate dollars towards government bonds or high credit quality securities and easily earn 5% a year or more with a lot of negative correlation. We’ve made changes to our fixed income exposure over the years to slightly reduce the amount of interest rate sensitivity of the bonds held. We’ve also added elements and dynamic exposures in 2021 which were able to avoid some of the worst of the bond market declines—the Canadian government bond market being down 3% for example.

That role of bonds acting as a volatility dampener historically has worked extremely well. Investors were able to receive a reasonable ongoing yield while having an asset that likely rose in value if the economy/stocks hit a rough patch and central banks looked to cut interest rates. In today’s environment with the ongoing yield very low, and some risk that in future declines bond yields may not have as much room to move downwards, that relationship doesn’t seem as sure as it did over the last few decades. Additionally, we want to ensure that over time we are balancing all of the risks to a portfolio. Short term volatility is certainly a consideration but so too is the inability to keep growing portfolios in real terms with growth rates above the level of inflation. Currently that is much more challenging for portfolios with very high levels of fixed income allocations.

As an Investment Committee, we held over a dozen manager due diligence meetings in 2021 hearing about potential bond strategies from some managers we are utilizing and others we are not. We have made some adjustments in 2021, going into 2022, will continue to review the area for any adjustments which may be able to better service that role of lowering portfolio level volatility.

One area we look to continue developing to help make portfolios more robust to a variety of market environments is the alternatives and real assets area. One of the additional benefits of the partnership with Focus Financial earlier this year was to gain access and economies of scale to some strategies which we could not before, by working together with some of the other partner firms. There is no requirement or incentive for us to do so. It would simply be if those solutions could further help your particular situation and made sense for your investment policy statement. Having a bigger toolkit available is helpful, especially as the historical stock/bond relationship may face some turbulence.

The area is not without risk. Instruments may be harder to value or holdings like commodities can have their own significant volatility. Losses can occur in this area from different factors than those which impact stocks or bonds. But by looking to combine some asset classes which do not perform in the same manner as stocks and bonds, we look to continue to make the portfolios more robust to a variety of different investment regimes. Going forward we will be breaking out that small segment from the overall stock and bond allocations so that there is better transparency to each segment of portfolios.

One way to visualize the three main components of your portfolio (stocks, bonds, and alternatives) is with a football analogy in which we view them as offense, defense, and special teams respectively. The stock portion is meant to create the meaningful growth in real wealth over time, with the opportunity to put the portfolio value ahead of schedule, though it’s not going to be successful every time. The bonds portion would be in the position of trying to limit the downside. By seeing smaller losses in downturns, a portfolio can start to grow sooner after those corrections and better be able to maintain withdraws over the long term. Alternatives enter into the equation as special teams—unique strategies to try and accomplish specific goals. Some holdings may be specifically targeting the risks of higher-than-expected inflation levels, while others may be aiming to generate returns in a manner that doesn’t look like the return we see from stocks or bonds, say by following certain systematic trends or having a market neutral exposure. Just as in a football game, the place kicker plays a much different role than a quarterback or linebacker. By combining these, we are aiming to create a more dynamic and complete team that can see success in a variety of different scenarios.

Diversification will never be an exciting way to invest. Yet, without a crystal ball about what short-term market returns will look like, it gives us the best odds of meeting the long-term goals and objectives for the assets. We look to continue to make small adjustments along the way to balance the different risks facing portfolios—such as inflation, low bond yields, or high equity valuations—but realize there is no silver bullet to generating higher returns. Focusing on a long-term financial plan utilizing reasonable assumed growth rates, executing a tax efficient investment implementation, and keeping a long-term perspective are our best tools as investors.

Sources:  U.S. Department of the Treasury, Morningstar Direct 2022, JP Morgan Guide to the Markets Dec 31, 2021.

Indexes are unmanaged baskets of securities that are not available for direct investment by investors. Index performance does not reflect the expenses associated with the management of an actual portfolio. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results. Foreign securities involve additional risks, including foreign currency changes, political risks, foreign taxes, and different methods of accounting and financial reporting. Emerging markets involve additional risks, including, but not limited to, currency fluctuation, political instability, foreign taxes, and different methods of accounting and financial reporting. All investments involve risk, including the loss of principal and cannot be guaranteed against loss by a bank, custodian, or any other financial institution.

Here we are again!  We are almost at the end of the year and Congress is debating and tweaking a bill that would significantly change tax law.  If implemented, these changes would have important implications for future tax years and there is planning that would need to be executed now for certain taxpayers.  In this case, the year is 2021, and the bill is the 2,135 page Build Back Better Act (BBBA).  The effective dates of the various tax measures are mostly for years starting after December 31, 2021.

The Possible

If the Build Back Better Act becomes law, the key items that we would need to look at include:

• Under BBBA, application of the 3.8% Net Investment Income Tax (NIIT) would be expanded to include the net income from flow-through and foreign entities.  This would reduce the tax efficiency of having a profitable Subchapter S Corporation and taking only a minimal salary.
• BBBA contains a provision to add an income tax surcharge on high income individuals, estates and trusts starting in 2022.  Only a handful of U.S. individuals would be affected as it would kick in at a modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) of $10million for joint returns.  However, the threshold is only $200,000 for estates and trusts.  MAGI is computed after adding back interest expense.  It would make sense for estates and trusts to distribute the excess income to the beneficiaries or to charities.
• On the positive side for many of our clients, the most current iteration of BBBA raises the State and Local Income Tax (SALT) cap to $80,000 through 2030.  This would clearly change the decision for many taxpayers to itemize deductions instead of taking the standard deduction.
• The exclusion of gain from the disposition of Qualified Small Business Stock would be only 50% instead of a full exclusion.
• The legislation includes multiple changes to corporate taxation and makes adjustments to the Global Intangible Low-Taxes Income (GILTI) regime that taxes foreign company income in the hands of U.S. persons.  If this legislation passes, we will provide more information on this topic at that time.

Although a version of the Build Back Better Act of 2021 did pass the House of Representatives on November 19^th, some changes and compromises may be necessary to pass the legislation through the evenly divided U.S. Senate.  For now, let’s concentrate on what is actual current law and we will update you if and when it passes the Senate.

The Known

Remember that we are in a period covered by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA).  This act expanded the reporting and taxation of foreign income permanently but also introduced a series of changes that will expire or phase-out at the end of 2025.

The Gift and Estate Tax Exemption
The amount in your estate that can be passed on to your heirs without estate tax was doubled under the TCJA but will return to pre-TCJA levels in 2026 unless Congress enacts legislation to change the exemption amount.  A significant reduction of the Estate Tax Exemption and an end to the step-up in basis of assets to Fair Market Value at date of death were provisions in the original BBBA but both have been removed from the version currently under consideration.  This is great news as it is very difficult to plan your estate not knowing what the exemption amount is and whether assets will receive a step-up in basis.  It’s a huge relief to all of us that the step-up in basis of a decedent’s assets to the asset’s Fair Market Value at date of death, or the Alternate Valuation Date six months later, is still in place.

Estate Tax Exemption

• 2021 – $11,700,000 each decedent
• 2022 – $12,060,000 each decedent

A properly structured estate plan can protect over $24 million for a U.S. citizen couple who both pass away in 2022.  Remember that the unused exemption of the first decedent is portable to the second U.S. citizen spouse, and adds to their exemption amount, no matter how long they survive the first spouse.  This is called the Decedent Spouse Unused Exemption (DSUE).  Portability to the surviving spouse is elected on the timely filed estate tax return for the first to die.  You may think that this will never apply to you, but a winning lottery ticket could change that calculation in an instant.

More good news is that a provision in the original bill that would have included certain types of grantor trusts in a decedent’s estate is also off the table now.

Gifts and Donations
The annual gift exclusion is rising from $15,000 for gifts made in 2021 to $16,000 in 2022.  What this means is that you may make a gift of up to $15,000 this year / $16,000 next year or any amount directly to an educational institution or to a medical provider without eating away at your lifetime gift and estate tax exemption.  For gifts made above these annual amounts, you may still have to file a gift tax return, but gifting can be a great strategy for passing wealth on while the Gift and Estate Tax Exemption is so high.  Charitable donations don’t eat into your exemption either.  The annual exclusion for gifts made during 2021 to a spouse who is not a U.S. citizen is $159,000. For gifts made in 2022 to non-citizen spouses, the exclusion will be $164,000.

Speaking of charity, if you make donations but not enough to itemize deductions, you can still take a deduction from taxable income in addition to the standard deduction.  For 2020, the additional deduction was $300 on a joint return.  On your 2021, joint filers can take an additional deduction for up to $600 of charitable donations. Keep your dated donation receipts.

Don’t forget that when you donate appreciated assets, you can deduct its market value without paying tax on the appreciation.  In a sense you are donating both your cost in the property and the right for the charity to sell the property and realize the gain. Generally, donations are limited to 60% of your Adjusted Gross Income.  Donations of appreciated assets have lower percent of AGI limits in certain circumstances.  Some planning will be required.

Standard vs Itemized Deductions
The standard deduction, like many other tax numbers, is indexed for the cost of living.  In addition to the amounts below, you can take the additional charitable donation deduction mentioned above.

	2021	2022
Single/MFS	$12,550	$12,950
Head of Household	$18,800	$19,400
Married Filing Jointly	$25,100	$25,900

Add $1,400 to each amount above if the taxpayer and/spouse is over 65 years of age or blind, or add $1,750 if you are a Single filer.

Itemized deductions are generally:

• medical insurance and expenses above a threshold
• mortgage and investment interest
• property and state income taxes (subject to the SALT cap)
• charitable donations.

It is often a good strategy to maximize donations and/or medical expenses every other year so that itemizing gives a better result instead of spreading those expenses evenly over every year and only taking the standard deduction. Prepaying mortgage interest, or making donations before December 31^st can help utilize or increase itemized deductions.

Personal Tax Rates
The top tax rate is still 37%, not the 39% that was batted around in Congress.  What is new is that it kicks in at $628,301 for Married Filing Jointly (MFJ) in 2021 and will apply to income greater than $647,850 for 2022.  For Single filers, the top bracket kicks in at $523,601 for 2021 and will apply to income greater than $539,900 for 2022.  For Head of Household filers, the top rate applies to incomes greater than $523,600 in 2021 and $539,900 for 2022.

Trust Tax Rates
The top tax rate of 37% kicks in at a measly $13,050 for 2021 and $13,450 for 2022.  It’s still tax-inefficient to have high taxable income in a non-grantor trust or estate.

Timing Your Taxes
Taxes withheld at source are deemed to be withheld evenly throughout the year.  If you think you are going to owe tax and you are a little short on your estimated payments, you might want to have more taxes withheld from your December paycheck or IRA distribution.  Why pay non-deductible penalties on late or insufficient estimated payments!

IRAs and RMDs

What is new for 2021?

Contributions

• The maximum contribution to a traditional or a Roth IRA is still $6,000 plus $1,000 if you are more than 49 years old and need to catch up. As before, even this low level of contribution is phased out depending on your family adjusted gross income (AGI) and whether one or both of you have access to a retirement plan at work.
• The maximum contribution to a 401(k) in 2022 will be $20,500 / $27,000 if you were born before 1973.
• A SEP-IRA is a Simplified Employee Plan. The employer makes the contribution.  This is a favorite plan for the self-employed business owner because it has a relatively high maximum contribution.  All employees of the business must be included in the plan.  The maximum amount that can be contributed to the plan for 2021 is the lesser of 25% of compensation and $58,000.  In 2022, that will rise to $61,000.  The SEP contribution limit for a self-employed individual is 25% of their self-employment earnings after deducting the deductible part of their self-employment tax and the deduction for contributions  to their own SEP-IRA.  This effectively changes the 25% to 20%.  Since this is an IRA, RMDs are required to be taken when a certain age is attained.

Distributions

• Unlike 2020, you cannot waive your 2021 Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) from your traditional IRA.  If you are 72 or older, you must take your RMD by the end of the year unless this is your first time, in which case you have the option of deferring both the withdrawal and the income pick-up until April 1, 2022.
• If you have multiple IRA accounts, you can take the RMD from any or all of them. If you have multiple 401(k)s and similar plans, the RMD must be taken from each account.
• Are you delaying retirement and working past 71? You may be able to delay taking RMDs from your 401(k) until you retire as long as you don’t own any more than 5% of the company.

Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs)
These may be made directly to a qualified charity from your traditional IRA to satisfy some or all of your RMD.  The maximum amount that your IRA may distribute as a QCD is $100,000 per year per taxpayer.  QCDs are not taxable to the IRA holder and do not add to your Adjusted Gross Income.  This is important because a higher AGI may trigger the Net Investment Income Tax and a Medicare premium surcharge.  Be diligent though.  Have the custodian make the donations directly from the IRA.  Do not handle the money yourself.

Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (FEIE)
The (FEIE) continues to be indexed upwards from $108,700 in 2021 to $112,000 in 2022.  Depending on your situation, it may be better to forgo the FEIE and use foreign tax credits instead to shelter you from U.S. taxes.  This allows you to stockpile more foreign tax credits for future use.  Keep in mind that the source country tax is what it is, and you are going to be paying that foreign tax regardless.  The decision to take the FEIE, or not, is entirely a question of U.S. tax strategy.

Alternative Minimum Taxes (AMT)
The AMT is still an issue for many taxpayers.  Even though the annual exemptions are ticking up with inflation, no one is happy about paying AMT unless it is the only tax you are paying on stock options.  Then it can be tolerated as long as there is not the potential of double taxation involving a foreign country.  AMT is usually triggered by Net Operating Losses, Tax Exempt Income (like some categories of stock options), AMT depreciation on large assets and other preference items.

For Single filers, the 2021 AMT exemption amount of $73,600 started phase-out at $523,600.  In 2022 the exemption amount will be $75,900 with phase-out starting at $539,900.  The 2021 numbers for MFJ filers are $114,600 and $1,047,200.  For 2022 the MFJ AMT exemption will be $118,000 starting to phase out at $1,079,800.  As you can see, there is a marriage penalty (speaking about taxes only).

Advance Child Tax Credits (CTC)
The CTC is a hot topic these days. Although the CTC has been around for many years, it has been bulked up to deal with the shortage of child care situations during the pandemic. It is still calculated based on your income level and the age and number of children who are your eligible children.  Since the summer of 2021, half of the anticipated CTC is now available as an advance payment paid monthly.  The advance payment of CTC may be as much as $300 per month for each child under six years of age and $250 for those children aged 6 through 17.  This advance CTC payment is only available to families where at least one spouse lives at least 6 months in their main home in the United States and filed a 2019 or 2020 tax return (even if it was just to get the credits).  Eligible children must have a valid social security number.  Be aware that if your income increases over what you expected when you applied, you may end up receiving more advance payments than you are entitled to and would have to repay some amount.

Pandemic Related

The Economic Impact Payments that you may have received in 2020 and in early 2021 are advance payments of a refundable tax credit and are not taxable income.  These are also called Recovery Rebates.  Please keep track of what you receive and when you receive it.

The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 allowed for $10,200 of unemployment insurance received in 2020 to be exempt from tax, at least federally.  That program was for 2020 only and unemployment payments are fully taxable for 2021. The IRS is still processing corrections and refunds for 2020 tax returns that were filed prior to the $10,200 exemption being announced and/or written into tax preparation software.

Business programs that are a response to the pandemic include PPP loans, Employee Retention Credits, Deferred Payroll Taxes, Paid Leave Credit and Family Sick and Medical Leave.  These programs continued into 2021 but are not as generous as they were in 2020.  Essentially, 2021 is the year where these programs wrap up and start to be settled.  Repayments of the PPP loans are well under way.  The first repayment of unforgiven loans was/is due approximately 16 months after you received your first loan payment.  Be aware of deadlines and filing requirements.  Many payroll reporting forms have changed and become much more complex.   Form 941 is at least twice as long as it was previously to account for payroll that fits into each of the programs, from regular payroll to Extended FMLA wages.

If you have purchased personal protective equipment (PPE) to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, these are deductible medical expenses.  If your business has purchased PPE for use in the business, those are deductible business expenses.  Again, the purpose of the purchase must be to prevent or slow the spread of the coronavirus.  The IRS advises that these costs can also be paid or reimbursed from your Flexible Spending Account, Medical Savings Account or Medical Reimbursement Account.

Working from home expenses for employees is a 2% itemized deduction (employee’s unreimbursed expenses) that was suspended for 2018 through 2025 due to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.  This is the same legislation that suspended the deduction for investment management fees.  Both deductions are scheduled to resume in 2026.  The pandemic did not change these rules.  Employers are allowed to provide some support for work-at-home activities if it helps employees to remain productive, and this is not a part of taxable income to the employee. If you are self-employed, you may deduct home office expenses related to your business use of your home, equipment, and supplies.  The key test is that the area must be regularly and exclusively used for business.  If the same desk and computer is used for business during the day and for personal activities at night, no deduction is available.

Other Matters

Your tax professionals are just as frustrated as you are with the crazy slow processing of returns and refunds and long response times from the IRS. The IRS continues to be understaffed and overwhelmed.  At one point it was calculated that only 3% of the up to 1,500 calls per second to the IRS were connected to a real person.  With the pandemic, the number of calls to the IRS has increased exponentially as new support programs came into being and taxpayers need more help navigating them.   All this while IRS computers are spitting out ominous notices. We are trying to do as much as possible online, but if your return hasn’t been touched yet, the online system won’t have any information either. This is our collective opportunity to be kind when we finally get through to an agent.

And now for some good news….  Congress has not changed the taxation of capital gains.  They had suggested taxing capital gains at 25% or taxing all capital gains whether long-term or short-term at the highest marginal rate to the extent that your income was over a million dollars.  Neither of these proposals are in the current iteration of the Build Back Better Act.  For now, we continue to manage your gains and losses based on economic advantages and income smoothing instead of trying to pull gains forward into 2021.

There are a lot of programs and credits that we haven’t touched on in this communication as they don’t affect as many of our clients and there is just too much to cover.  If you are looking for information on Opportunity Zones, adoption credits, EITC, QBID, taxes on expatriation, or any number of other topics, we will try to answer your questions in other blogs.  We probably won’t write an article about the tax on imported arrow shafts unless someone specifically requests it.  (I know – so obscure!)

If you have any questions regarding any of the topics that we have covered in this newsletter please reach out to us!  The Private Wealth Managers at Cardinal Point are part of a robust team of cross-border investment, planning and tax professionals.

Tax law in Canada was fairly stable in 2021 but Tax Brackets continue to creep up since they are indexed to inflation.  The inflation factor was actually only 1% for 2021, so the changes to the brackets were minimal.  The federal tax rates themselves did not change substantially.

The federal personal amount increased to $14,398 for 2022 from $13,808 in 2021.

Keep in mind that the provincial brackets are independent from the federal brackets and also changed.  For 2021, PEI’s top marginal tax rate of 16.7% kicks in at $63,971 while the Yukon’s top marginal rate of 15% doesn’t apply until income exceeds $500,000.

The Canada Revenue Agency continues to have very slow response times due to lower staffing levels and the proliferation of pandemic-related support programs.  Trying to reach an agent by phone to resolve problems and check on the status of your filings is a test of patience for even the most Zen taxpayer or tax practitioner.  We highly recommend that you sign up for a CRA MyAccount and then allow your tax professional access through Authorize a Representative.  Not everything can be solved online, but many routine tasks can be accomplished, and common documents can be submitted – leaving the 2+ hours on hold for the trickier matters.

Coast to Coast to Coast Roundup for notable provincial tax updates.

• Nova Scotia and Alberta only have minor changes for 2021 and 2022.
• Yukon, Nunavut, and the Northwest Territories had no personal tax rate or credit changes in their 2021 budgets.
• Newfoundland & Labrador has additional, progressive tax brackets and higher rates effective for 2022.
• PEI made small increases to the basic personal amount and the low-income tax reduction threshold effective for 2022.
• QC made changes effective for 2022 to the Home Support Services for Seniors tax credit.
• NB reduced the lowest tax rate to 9.4% from 9.68% for 2021.
• ON allowed a one-time 20% bump to The Ontario CARE tax credit for 2021.  There is also a new temporary Ontario Jobs Training tax credit for 2021.
• MB provided more support for teachers purchasing supplies is provided with a non-refundable tax credit effective for 2022.
• SK was busy – get moving Saskatchewan!  The Active Families Benefit is back.   Also look for the Sask Home Renovation Credit, the 0% corporate tax rate and an extended Saskatchewan Technology Start-up Incentive.
• BC made changes to the Emergency Benefits for Workers to include self-employed individuals.

Federal changes affecting individuals from the 2021 Federal Budget

• The Disability Tax Credit has been made more accessible by adding more mental functions necessary for everyday live and making the life-sustaining therapy rules more flexible.
• The income ranges for the phase out of the Canada Workers Benefit are raised to $22,944 – $32,244 for single people without children and $26,177 – $56,197 for double-earner families.
• Are you doing a green renovation to your home?  You may be eligible for an interest-free CMHC loan of up to $40,000.
• Old Age Security recipients over 74 years of age should have received a $500 one-time payment in August 2021.  Those over 74 years of age next year should also see a 10% increase in their monthly benefit starting with July 2022.
• Canada Child Benefits (CCB) for those who qualify, are increased to a maximum of $1,200 per child for families whose income is $120,000 or less and to a maximum of $600 per child for families with income above that threshold.  This remains a tax-free benefit.

The rules for Stock Options received by virtue of an employment relationship have changed for options granted on or after July 1, 2021. These changes do not apply to Canadian-controlled private corporations (CCPCs) or non-CCPC employers with group revenue of $500 million or less.

Old Rules
Generally, employees who receive stock options will receive benefits that are classified as employment income and as capital gains.  The employment income inclusion for non-CCPC shares is generally the difference between the FMV of the shares at the time the options are exercised and the option price paid.  Capital gains are realized if the shares are later sold at proceeds in excess of their FMV at time of exercise.

The employee who reportable employment income from the exercise stock options that meet certain conditions, including that the options were not ‘in the money’ at the time they were granted, was previously allowed a deduction for 50% of the amount of employment income reported.  There was no limit to the size of the stock option deduction.

New Rules
The stock option deduction can only be applied to $200,000 of vested stock options per year if the employer corporation is not a CCPC and has annual gross group revenue of over $500,000.  In certain circumstances, the employer is given a deduction for the stock option benefit denied to the employee.  Since the $200,000 is determined by the vesting date, large grants of stock options should have staggered vesting dates or should not mention a vesting date to allow for the assumed default pro-rata 60 month vesting to provide the maximum benefit to the employee.

The rules are a bit more complicated than laid out above, but this should give you the gist of it.  Similar new rules were implemented for stock options in an employee cash-out.  Talk to us if you have non-CCPC employment stock options granted on or after July 1, 2021.

Federal and provincial changes affecting businesses from the 2021 budget
There were no changes to federal corporate tax rates or the $500,000 small business limit of a CCPC.  All provinces and territories except Saskatchewan also have a $500,000 business limit at this time.  There were changes to tax rates and/or credit programs for PEI, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta but these changes are beyond the scope of this newsletter.

Expansion of Immediate Expensing (CCA) for businesses
Eligible assets acquired after April 19, 2021, and available for use prior to January 1, 2024, may be expensed in full in the year of acquisition.  Associated companies must share an annual expensing limit of $1.5 million per year and can still take regular Capital Cost Allowance for the remaining assets.  Eligible assets must be new to you and related parties, and must not be property in Classes 1 to 6, 14.1, 17, 47, 49 or 51.

Speaking of Capital Cost Allowance – even used zero-emission vehicles now qualify for 100% CCA in Class 56 if acquired before 2024.

There are a number of tax incentives for Clean Energy, Green Economy and Film Production, but we won’t go into detail. If you think any of these apply to you, please reach out to your Cardinal Point advisor.

If you are contemplating an intergenerational transfer of your Qualifying Small Business, take a look at provisions in Bill C-208 that came into force on June 29, 2021.  This bill made changes to section 84.1 of the Income Tax Act, which may allow the related-party transfer to be treated as a capital gain instead of as a deemed dividend.  Capital gain treatment would allow the seller to monetize their Lifetime Capital Gains Exemption.

Not new, but still notable – Keep in mind some relatively recent tax changes.

Tax on Split Income (TOSI) – This is the anti-income-sprinkling rule that has been in force since the beginning of 2018.  TOSI can cause some income to be taxed at the highest marginal rate and continues to be a consideration as you arrange your investments, trusts, and business affairs.

Digital News Subscription  – 2021 will be the second year that you can claim a non-refundable tax credit for up to $500 that you paid for qualifying subscription expenses.  Small potatoes but who doesn’t love potatoes?

Pandemic Related

• Repayments of COVID-19 benefits can be claimed on an amended return for the year in which the original benefit was received OR in the year of repayment.  Your choice.
• What do the Canada Emergency Response Benefits (CERB), Canada Emergency Student Benefits (CESB), Canada Recovery Benefits (CRB), Canada Recovery Sickness Benefits (CRSB) and Canada Recovery Caregiving Benefits (CRCB) have in common?  There are all temporary benefits paid to individuals with most already phasing out, and they are all taxable income.  Don’t forget to factor these into you estimated payments plan.  They all may also be repaid in and deducted from taxable income in the year originally received or in the year repaid as stated above.
• Working from home due to COVID-19? For 2020, there was express guidance that allowed employees to deduct either a $2 flat rate/day or a reasonable portion of eligible home office expenses.  Given that the pandemic did not end early in the year, we expect that work from home expenses for employees will be allowable again for some or all of 2021.  Keep your receipts and keep checking the CRA website.
• COVID-19 testing, vaccinations and personal protective equipment (PPE) are eligible for the Medical Expense Tax Credit if the vaccinations are prescribed by a medical practitioner and the PPE are medical quality, prescribed and used to help with a severe condition.
• An employee who is required to use PPE and sanitizing liquid in the course of their employment and who is required by their employer to bear the cost of these supplies – may deduct them as an employment expense.
• After progressively reducing over 20 four-week periods, the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) terminated on October 23, 2021.  Claims, including amended claims, must be filed within 180 days and this deadline is firm.
• The Canada Recovery Hiring Program (CRHP) provides a subsidy to CCPC employers of up to 50% of ‘incremental remuneration’ paid to employees between June 6^th and November 20^th, 2021.  This is to encourage workers to rejoin the workforce.
• The Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) was expanded to allow interest-free loans of up to $60,000 and up to $20,000 of those loans to be completely forgiven (but taxable income). The interest-free loans must be repaid in full by December 31, 2022 in order to receive the $20,000 forgiven amount.

Were you a foreign taxpayer stuck in Canada because of travel restrictions imposed as a result of the pandemic?  The Canada Revenue Agency extended its relief from the 183-day residency rule that would make you a tax resident of Canada until the earlier of December 31^st 2021 and the date on which travel restrictions are lifted.  That will be a different date depending on the country you call your tax home.  For Americans, that date was November 8^th.

Proposed changes to keep in mind.

Expanded Reporting for Trusts
Current rules do not require a trust to file a return unless the trust received income or made distributions in the year, and it is not necessary to disclose the beneficial ownership and beneficiaries of the trust.  It has been proposed to expand those reporting and filing requirements to allow the Canada Revenue Agency to collect information on the identity of trustees, settlors, and beneficiaries of most Canadian trusts.  This requirement to file a T3 – Trust Income Tax Return, and to disclose additional information was to be effective for trusts with fiscal periods ending after December 30, 2021, which for the vast majority of trusts means ‘this year’.   We have been preparing you for the expanded reporting requirement and while this hasn’t passed into law yet, we fully expect that it will.

Certain types of trusts, such as graduated rate trusts and trusts that are wound up before December 30^th, 2021, should not be subject to this expanded reporting.  If you were planning to wind up a trust to avoid being subject to the Tax On Split Income (TOSI) rules or as a part of a 21-year deemed disposition, then now might be the time to do so.

Capital Gains Inclusion Rate
Capital Gains escaped a higher inclusion rate for 2021.  Even though only 50% of capital gains have been taxable since 2000, we need to remember that the inclusion rate has been as high as 75%.  When governments need to raise funds, capital gains are an easy target.  We know that the Canadian government needs to increase revenues, partly to cover the cost of the COVID-19 response, so the inclusion rate may very well rise again.  Does is make sense to dispose of highly appreciated assets while you know the inclusion rate is only 50%?  If you want to continue to hold the asset, is there any way to crystallize the gain to this point?   If the asset is a Qualified Small Business Corporation or qualified farm property, is there an opportunity to utilize your Lifetime Capital Gains Exemption?  Let’s talk about your options.

Proposed anti-flipping rule tightened for the Principal Residence Exemption
The Principal Residence Exemption in Canada does not have an upper dollar limit like it does in the U.S. ($250k USD per person). The amount of gain is the total gross proceeds received less the adjusted cost basis of the property and the cost of selling it (commissions and fees).  The portion of this gain that can be exempted is generally:

The resulting gain exempted from taxation can be a very large number.  There has always been guidance that the CRA can ask for evidence that the principal residence use was bona fide and that the taxpayer wasn’t simply flipping properties for profit.  Now there is chatter that there will be a minimum period of time that the property must be used as your principal residence to qualify the gain for exemption, further tightening the anti-flipping rules.  This is not law yet but be aware that it could soon be.

Tax on Non-resident, non-Canadian owners of vacant/under-used housing
A proposed 1% national tax is slated to come into force on January 1, 2022, but the bill has not yet received royal assent.  There is talk of a carve-out for small tourism and resort communities.  This is still not a done deal.

Items mentioned in the November 23, 2021 Speech From the Throne
You might see these in future newsletters:

• Extension of some of the pandemic response programs to support Canada’s economic recovery.
• First time home buyer programs may become more flexible.
• New rent to own program for residences.

During the election, the NDP proposed a wealth tax on the ultra-rich – individuals and corporations.  Whether or not that idea has enough support to become law is yet to be seen.  We expect this topic will continue to come up for discussion as Parliament tackles the nation’s balance sheet.  We will see…

If you have any questions regarding any of the topics that we have covered in this newsletter please reach out to us!  The Private Wealth Manager