A shareholders' agreement gives children the right to acquire the shares of a farm corporation for $1 after their father's death. If the children exercise their right to purchase, are those shares transferred or distributed to the children as a consequence of the father's death for the purposes of subsection 70(9.2)? After finding that the acquisition of the shares by a child would be as a consequence of the exercise of the purchase right arising on death and not as a consequence of the death of the father given that the children had a choice as to whether to acquire the father's shares upon his death, CRA went on to state:
If the shares were acquired under or as a result of the exercise of the right to purchase granted by the shareholders' agreement, the answer would be the same even if the will includes a reference to the shareholders' agreement. On the other hand, if the shares were acquired under or as a consequence of the will rather than under the shareholders' agreement, subsection 248(8) would apply and the shares would be considered transferred as a consequence of the father's death. If all other conditions of subsection 70(9.2) were satisfied, the rollover under that subsection would apply.