Holdco holds 100 common shares of Opco and 100 non-participating preferred shares which are redeemable for, and have a PUC and ACB of, $100. Opco has some safe income. Would the payment of a dividend on the pref shares trigger the application of s. 55(2)?
After noting that “the hypothetical capital gain that would have been realized on a FMV disposition of class "B" preferred shares immediately before the dividend…would be nil,” so that the dividend would not be considered to come out of safe income on hand, CRA stated that if s. 55(2.1)(c) thus applied then (subject to the Part IV tax exclusion) “subsection 55(2) would apply in the present situation if all the conditions of paragraphs 55 (2.1)(a) to (c) were established.” If it so applied, “the amount of the dividend would not reduce the SIOH of the corporation.”