Metro Vancouver
Estate and Tax Planning Accountant for Burnaby, Richmond, Coquitlam and Metro Vancouver
Tranquility Tax Solutions is based in Burnaby. Ray Loucks, CPA, CA, TEP, FEA, has advised privately held businesses and the families behind them for more than 20 years, and most of his clients own a company, real estate, or both, somewhere in Metro Vancouver: Burnaby, Richmond, Coquitlam and the cities around them. He also takes on clients across Canada.
The work is succession and estate planning, and the corporate and personal tax filings that keep those plans compliant. The first conversation is free, and it starts by putting a number on what the tax would be if nothing changed.
What Metro Vancouver owners and families bring to us
A company that has grown in value
On death you are treated as having sold your shares at market value. If they go to your children rather than your spouse, the tax is not deferred. An estate freeze done early is the usual way to cap that bill.
Read moreA rental, a cottage or a second property
Your main home is usually covered by the principal residence exemption. Any other property is treated as sold at market value when you die, and the gain is taxed on your final return.
Read moreA family trust approaching its 21st year
Every 21 years a trust is treated as if it sold everything it holds. Moving assets out to beneficiaries before that date takes a few years to plan.
Read moreChildren living outside Canada
A child living abroad cannot receive your RRSP or RRIF on a tax-deferred basis, and payments to them face Canadian withholding tax on top of the tax your estate already pays.
Read moreA parent who has died owning a company
Without planning, the company is taxed on the final return and again when the money comes out. The remedies depend on steps taken in the estate's first year.
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The British Columbia rules that shape the plan
British Columbia charges probate on the gross value of the estate passing under the will: no fee on the first $25,000, $6 per $1,000 between $25,000 and $50,000, and $14 per $1,000 above that, roughly 1.4 percent on a large estate. That is why private company shares usually sit under a second will and pass outside the probated estate.
Registered savings are the other large BC number. Unless an RRSP or RRIF goes to your spouse, the whole balance is added to your income on your final return, and at BC's top rate close to half of it can go to tax in a single year.
Services for Metro Vancouver clients
Common questions
Do you work with clients outside Burnaby?
Yes. The practice is based in Burnaby and works with business owners and families in Richmond, Coquitlam and across Metro Vancouver, and takes on clients elsewhere in Canada.
Read moreDo I need an estate planning accountant as well as a lawyer?
For an estate that includes a company, rental property or a trust, yes. The lawyer drafts the documents; the accountant works out what they will cost in tax, which structure costs least, and which elections and filings keep the plan valid. Where the estate is a home and some savings, a lawyer alone is usually enough.
Read moreCan you file my personal and corporate tax returns as well?
Yes. For an owner-manager the personal and corporate returns are one decision reported on two forms, so they are prepared together and the dividends, salary and loan balances reconcile.
Read moreWhat does the first meeting cost?
Nothing. The first conversation is free. It is used to understand what you own, what you want to happen to it, and roughly what the tax would be if nothing changed. You decide from there.
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