A family trust whose beneficiaries included Father, Mother, two sons (Son A and Son B) and the wife of Son A (Daughter-in-law A) but not the wife of Son B (Daughter-in-law B) realized a capital gain on the disposition of a qualified small business corporation shares of Holdco, and distributed a portion of those gains to the above four children who, however, immediately returned most of the distributed funds to Father and Mother and were issued “Acknowledgements of Debt” which, however, they never received and, in fact, Father requested that the auditor not mention to them that they were owed these amounts. (A variation of these transactions applied to Daughter-in-law A.) The distributed gains were reported on their returns, with Father paying all the alternative minimum tax. Father and Mother invested the “returned” amounts and reported the income thereon.
In doubting that the purported loans should be respected, the Directorate stated:
Father and Mother argue that the so-called acknowledgements of debt support a creditor/debtor relationship. These documents, which are similar in wording to demand notes, were not delivered to Son B and the two Daughter-in-laws. Pursuant to section 178 of the Bills of Exchange Act (RSC 1985, c. B-4), a note is inchoate and incomplete until delivery thereof to the payee or bearer, that is to say, that it is incomplete until it has been given to the beneficiary.
In finding that (subject to the further issue that Daughter-in-law B was not a beneficiary) such amounts were likely excluded from the children’s income as agents, included in the income of Father and Mother under s. 104(13) and deductible by the Trust under s. 104(6), the Directorate stated:
[T]o allocate income to Son B and the two daughters-in-law who acted as agents or nominees of Father and of Mother for the income to be treated as if it were payable to them for the purposes of subsections 104(13) and 104(24). Son B and the two daughters-in-law were therefore entitled to claim the sums payable as agents or nominees of Father and Mother, ensuring that they gave Father and Mother a large part of the sums paid by Trust (except the amount paid to thank them for acting as an accommodation party).
Trust could benefit from the deduction under paragraph 104(6)(b) in respect of the portion of the income allocated (referred to in paragraph 22 of the Facts) to Father and/or Mother through Son B and Daughter-in-law A .