CRA announces no bare trust reporting required for 2023

The Canada Revenue Agency (“CRA”) announced today that – “in recognition that the new reporting requirements for bare trusts have had an unintended impact on Canadians” – it will not require bare trusts to file a T3 income tax return for the 2023 tax year, unless the CRA directly requests such filing.

Given the uncertainty and obligations surrounding the filing of T3 returns for bare trusts, including in regards to information required to be disclosed on Schedule 15 (Beneficial Ownership Information of a Trust), this will certainly be welcome news for those bare trusts for which no filing has yet been made. Additionally, in their announcement the CRA noted that it will work with the Department of Finance to clarify its guidance on the filing requirement for bare trusts over the coming months.

The T3 return filing deadline of April 2, 2024 still applies to all other types of trusts (to the extent subject to the enhanced trust reporting rules).