The Directorate considered that a pension plan breached Reg. 8502(i) as the amount of borrowing in respect of certain real estate properties of the Plan exceeded their cost.
The Plan’s advisor proposed:
to transfer all real properties in respect of which there are any potential borrowing issues to a newly-formed real estate corporation that would be wholly-owned by the Plan and exempt from tax under subparagraph 149(1)(o.2)(ii) of the Act. The real estate corporation would assume all of the relevant debt and the Plan would be released as a borrower (although it may still be required to guarantee some of the debts). All future real estate investments and any associated borrowings would be made by the real estate corporation in accordance with subparagraph 149(1)(o.2)(ii).
The Directorate stated that this “appears to be a reasonable solution to resolve past non-compliance.”