Many estate plans involve a “bare trust.” This document allows one person to hold the legal title of a property in trust for another person who is the true beneficial owner. The bare trust can be used to transfer ownership without triggering BC’s Property Transfer Tax, which only applies when there is a registered change of legal title.
The recent 2016 BC Budget describes government plans to require “…transferees acting as bare trustees to declare information in relation to settlors and beneficiaries of a trust.“ Depending upon how this requirement is implemented, it will not directly interfere with bare trusts. However, is it a signal of future plans to apply PTT to beneficial transfers?