Madam Speaker, I grew up on a small 50-acre farm and, in spite of having 11 labour-cost-free children, my father still required off-the-farm income because he realized it was not easy to feed 11 children with what we could produce on the farm.
I am pleased to take part in the debate today on private member's bill, Bill C-208, which aims to facilitate the transfer of family businesses between family members.
Ensuring the sustainability of small businesses, family farms and fishing corporations is essential to our economy and to the communities that they serve. This has been underscored by the critical need to support families and communities as we continue to fight COVID-19. Our government understands this. From the outset of the pandemic, Canada's economic response to COVID-19 has introduced a range of support measures for small businesses to help bridge them to the other side.
Simply put, we have their backs. That extends to helping family businesses thrive for generations to come.
Encouraging the sale of family businesses to family members often means those businesses will remain in, and continue to benefit, their communities as well as the families that fought hard, sacrificed and succeeded through pure determination and entrepreneurial spirit. It is with this spirit in mind that Bill C-208 bears careful consideration.
Bill C-208 seeks to amend two of the Income Tax Act's most important and complex anti-avoidance rules. These rules deal with inter-corporate dividends, share sales and circumstances under which the lifetime capital gains exemption is charged. Any relieving changes to these sections of the act must be done cautiously, following rigorous study and debate, to avoid unintentionally creating loopholes that would disproportionately benefit the wealthy instead of protecting the middle class and those working hard to join it.
Section 84.1 of the act, in particular, is in place to apply an anti-avoidance rule where, when appropriate, an individual sells shares of one corporation to another corporation that is linked to an individual, such as a family member. When an individual sells shares of a Canadian corporation to a linked corporation, section 84.1 of the act deems, in certain circumstances, that the individual has received a taxable dividend from the linked corporation rather than a capital gain. This prevents the individual from realizing the proceeds of the sale on a tax-free basis using the lifetime capital gains exemption.
This rule is meant to ensure that taxpayers cannot use linked corporations to, in effect, remove earnings from their corporations, using a sale as a basis to do so. Without this rule, such sales between related parties could be used to convert what should be dividends to an individual shareholder into capital gains that are tax free under the lifetime capital gains exemption.
Bill C-208 proposes narrowing the scope of section 84.1 by removing the sale of shares of small businesses, family farms or fishing corporations from its application, when they are being sold by an individual to another corporation that is owned by their adult child or their grandchild. This change would allow the owner-operator of a family business to convert dividends to the corporation into a tax-free capital gain.
It is important to note that there is currently nothing in the act stopping a parent from selling the shares of a family business directly to their child or grandchild on a tax-free basis using the lifetime capital gains exemption, which currently shelters up to $1 million in capital gains on qualified farm and fishing properties. The issues sought to be addressed by Bill C-208 arise only in multi-tier corporate structures, where one corporation owns a second corporation. Adopting the proposed changes to section 84.1 could open the door to new tax-avoidance opportunities.
Bill C-208 also proposes amendments to section 55 of the act, which generally applies to corporations that seek to inappropriately reduce capital gains by paying excessive tax-free dividends between corporations, which the act considers to be a capital gain.
Two exemptions to these anti-avoidance rules authorize businesses that are restructuring to allow company shareholders to split company shares between them while deferring taxes. The first exemption applies to the restructuring of related corporations and the second applies to all corporate restructuring.
Bill C-208 would broaden the first exemption so that it applies to brothers and sisters, despite long-standing tax policy that considers brothers and sisters to have separate and independent economic interests for these purposes. Any change to this exemption would risk eroding our tax base.
Spouses, as well as parents and their children, are already eligible for this exemption, because it is presumed that they have shared economic interests. Although brothers and sisters cannot restructure their participation in a corporation on a tax-deferred basis under the related corporations exemption, they can do it under the second exemption of section 55, which applies to all corporate restructurings.
This is called the butterfly exemption, and there are few tax avoidance opportunities under it. If the proposed amendments under section 55 included in Bill C-208 were passed, siblings could undertake business restructurings in which otherwise taxable capital gains realized between corporations would be converted into tax-free intercorporate dividends, which would create new opportunities for tax avoidance in Canada.
I will conclude by saying that we know many businesses are continuing to face stress and uncertainty due to COVID-19. Our government has stepped up to the plate to make sure that they have the support during these unprecedented times.
We have made unprecedented support available to Canadian businesses, including the Canadian emergency business account, which has provided 758,000 business loans totalling $30 billion. The Canada emergency wage subsidy has supported the wages of more than 3.5 million employees totalling $36.7 billion.
Just this week applications were opened for the new Canada emergency rent subsidy, which will provide simple and easy-to-access commercial rent support and an additional lockdown support of 25% for businesses that have temporarily shut down due to mandatory public orders. Combined, this will mean the hard-hit businesses subject to lockdown will receive rent support up to 90%.
Our message to businesses remains the same. We have their back.
There are important considerations to take into account when we are reviewing the merits of Bill C-208. Our government remains committed to working with family businesses, including farming and fishing businesses, to make it efficient, or less difficult, to hand down their businesses to a next generation. However, we must exercise caution when making amendments to the Income Tax Act.