CRA finds that an Australian “Self-managed Super Fund” was a pension plan for Canadian purposes

CRA found that an Australian “Self-managed Super Fund” to which the taxpayer, her husband and her husband’s employer had made contributions before their divorce and her coming to Canada was a pension plan (so that payments under the “SMSF” were required to be included in her income after becoming a Canadian resident) given such employer contributions and that the sole purpose of the SMSF was to provide retirement benefits to its members. The fact that the Australian tax treatment was quite different (i.e., income accumulating in the fund had been subject to flat tax of 15%, or 10% in the case of long-term capital gains, and pension payments after retirement were free of Australian tax) was irrelevant.

CRA also noted that is some circumstances, “paragraph 60(j) allows for a tax-deferred transfer of a pension benefit (that is not part of a series of periodic payments) from an unregistered pension plan to an RRSP.”

Neal Armstrong. Summaries of 24 June 2020 External T.I. 2018-0747781E5 under s. 248(1) – superannuation or pension benefit and s. 60(j).