A multi-national entity’s Canadian subsidiary has voluntarily adopted IFRS for the purpose of preparing its Canadian income tax returns. In this regard, can a taxpayer use fair value accounting under IFRS for thin cap purposes, even if this is voluntary, or even if U.S. GAAP is used for shareholder reporting purposes?
After noting “that a taxpayer may be been able to significantly increase the reported retained earnings by adopting IFRS,” the Directorate stated:
[R]etained earnings computed using IFRS is acceptable for thin cap purposes, whether or not the adoption of IFRS is mandatory or voluntary.
Regarding the use for shareholder reporting purposes of US GAAP, it stated:
for purposes of the thin cap rules, the accounting method followed by a taxpayer in preparing financial statements for presentation to its shareholders is generally expected to be consistent with the method followed in preparing financial statements for income tax purposes.
A multinational entity, however, may be required to prepare financial statements using different accounting methods in order to be compliant with the GAAP for each particular country in which financial statements are required to be prepared. As such, it is feasible that a Canadian taxpayer which is part of a multi-national group of companies, who prepares financial statements for income tax purposes under Canadian GAAP (IFRS or ASPE), will also prepare financial statements using another accounting method for purposes of consolidation by a parent entity located in another country, which has a different GAAP. Absent objectionable tax planning or abusive tax avoidance, this may be acceptable, but each particular situation would need to be considered on a case-by-case basis.