The federal government recently announced changes in tax law whereby if you put a property into the joint names of a parent and child for example for the purposes of avoiding probate for that property since the property will be transferred to the child in the event of the death parent, the federal government is requiring a trust tax return to be filed. Further, the government is treating this situation as one where the child could be deemed by Canada Revenue Agency to be the beneficiary of a trust and could be required to pay capital gains taxes on their share of the property. This tax would be based upon the gain in value beginning from the time the child went on title until the property was sold. Depending on the number of years involved, the gain could be very significant as would the potential tax liability.
For this reason, we are now recommending that clients not do this. There are the ways to avoid delays caused by probate. Contact us for more details