Please note that the following document, although believed to be correct at the time of issue, may not represent the current position of the Department.
Prenez note que ce document, bien qu'exact au moment émis, peut ne pas représenter la position actuelle du ministère.
Principal Issues: Is the stipend received by an elected school trustee taxable under subsection 5(1) as income from an office?
The taxpayer has requested that she not be paid the stipend at this time since she may compromise her CPP disability pension eligibility. Is the amount taxable?
Position: Yes
It is taxable if the amounts are unconditionally available to the taxpayer.
Reasons: Similar to payments made to elected members of provincial legislative assemblies. See paragraph 2 of IT-266 which states that such amounts are taxable under 5(1) as income from an office. Also, see cases cited below and paragraph 3 of IT-292
We have previously indicated that an amount is received by a taxpayer when it was considered to be unconditionally available.
January 5, 2000
Vancouver Tax Services Office HEADQUARTERS Individual Client Services Jacques E. Grisé 957-2059 Attention: Mr. Clifford Evans 992735
Elected School Trustee Stipend
This is in reply to your fax of October 8, 1999 requesting our comments on an elected school trustee stipend.
You describe the situation wherein an elected school trustee (the trustee) is entitled to receive an annual stipend of $XXXXXXXXXX from the trustee's school district. The trustee has requested that any stipend owing be held "in trust" by the school district. You have confirmed that there is no formal trust arrangement and the stipend owing to the trustee is simply being held by the school district in the form of an account. In other words, the funds are unconditionally available since the trustee simply needs to request payment of the amounts owing in order to obtain a cash payment.
We are of the view, that a stipend received by an elected school trustee is taxable under subsection 5(1) of the Income Tax Act (the Act) as income from an office. There is no provision in the Act that would allow a taxpayer to change the nature of a particular type of income. Furthermore, in our view, a stipend that is unconditionally available to a person, is "received" by that person for purposes of subsection 5(1) of the Act.
For your information a copy of this memorandum will be severed using the Access to Information Act criteria and placed in the Legislation Access Database (LAD) on the Agency's mainframe computer. A severed copy will also be distributed to the commercial tax publishers for inclusion in their databases. The severing process will remove all material that is not subject to disclosure, including information that could disclose the identity of the taxpayer. Should your client request a copy of this memorandum, they can be provided with the LAD version, or they may request a copy severed using the Privacy Act criteria, which does not remove client identity. Requests for this latter version should be made by you to Jackie Page at 613 957-0682. A copy will be sent to you for delivery to the client.
We hope our comments are helpful
John Oulton
Manager
Business, Property and Employment
Income Section III
Income Tax Rulings and
Interpretations Directorate
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