CRA rules that a Luxembourg FCP was a co-ownership rather than a trust or partnership

Foreign pension funds invested in particular securities’ portfolios including, in some cases, Canadian securities through acquiring “units” in particular sub-funds of a Luxembourg FCP (“fonds commun de placement,” which might literally be translated as an “investment mutual fund”). Their units were stated to give them a proportionate ownership interest in the sub-fund. The portfolios were managed by a manager and held by separate custodians.

CRA ruled that the FCP including the constituent sub-funds would be treated as fiscally transparent for purposes of the Act so that, for example, dividends or interest paid by a particular Canadian investment in a sub-fund would be considered an amount paid directly to the unitholder “in proportion to its co-ownership interest in the assets and Gross Income of the particular Sub-Fund.” This ruling letter essentially constitutes the reissuance of a ruling letter given a decade previously.

Neal Armstrong. Summary of 2017 Ruling 2015-0605161R3 under s. 104(1).