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Principal Issues: 2025 APFF Annual Conference CRA Roundtable Q.10: Can the election under subsection 220(4.5) allow an individual to defer the payment of alternative minimum tax triggered by the application of paragraph 128.1(4)b) in the individual's emigration year?
Position: Yes.
Reasons: Wording of the Act.
FEDERAL TAX ROUNDTABLE OCTOBER 9, 2025
2025 APFF CONFERENCE
10. Application of subsection 220(4.5) of the Act to the alternative minimum tax caused by the deemed disposition provided for in paragraph 128.1(4)(b).
In the 2023 Budget, Finance Canada announced changes to the alternative minimum tax ("AMT"). Following consultations with stakeholders, further changes were announced in the 2024 Budget, which were enacted on June 20, 2024. The effective date of the amendments was January 1, 2024.
For 2024 and subsequent years, the AMT rate was increased from 15% to 20.5%, while the AMT exemption for individuals was increased from $40,000 to the amount of the fourth tax bracket for individuals ($177,882 in 2025). Among other changes, the inclusion rate for capital gains, allowable capital losses and gains on listed personal property has been increased from 80% to 100%.
Under paragraph 128.1(4)(b), an individual who ceases to be resident in Canada at a particular time is deemed to have disposed, at the time that is immediately before the time that is immediately before the particular time, of each property owned by the individual (other than property described in subparagraphs 128.1(4)(b)(i) to 128.1(4)(b)(v)) for proceeds equal to their FMV. Depending on the amount of capital gains realized by the individual who ceased to be resident in Canada, the AMT could now apply to the individual.
Subsection 220(4.5) allows an individual to elect to defer payment of an amount of tax arising on the deemed disposition under paragraph 128.1(4)(b) of a property (other than a right to a benefit under, or an interest in a trust governed by, an employee benefit plan) by providing adequate security to the CRA.
Question to the CRA
Does the election under subsection 220(4.5) allow an individual to defer the payment of an AMT amount caused by a deemed disposition of property under paragraph 128.1(4)(b)?
CRA Response
By virtue of section 127.5, subject to section 127.55 and subsection 120.4(3), the tax payable by an individual for a taxation year may have to be calculated pursuant to the minimum tax rules set out in Division E.1. To the extent that an individual ceases to be resident in Canada at a particular time in a taxation year, so that paragraph 128.1(4)(b) applies, it is possible that the amount of minimum tax calculated pursuant to paragraph 127.5(a) will be greater than the tax otherwise payable by the individual under Division E, exclusive of section 120. In such a case, the tax payable under Part I will be calculated pursuant to section 127.5.
Subsection 220(4.5) allows an individual to elect to defer payment of an amount of tax payable as a result of a deemed disposition of property under paragraph 128.1(4)(b) (other than a right to a benefit under, or an interest in a trust governed by, an employee benefit plan) at any particular time in a taxation year (referred to as the individual’s “emigration year”). If the individual makes the election on or before the individual's balance-due date for the emigration year, the Minister of National Revenue shall accept adequate security furnished by the individual.
The amount of the security for a given taxation year is the lesser of the amounts provided for in paragraph 220(4.5)(a):
(i) the amount determined by the formula
A - B - [((A - B)/A) × C]
where
A is the total amount of taxes under Parts I and I.1 that would be payable by the individual for the emigration year if the exclusion or deduction of each amount referred to in paragraph 161(7)(a) were not taken into account,
B is the total amount of taxes under those Parts that would have been so payable if each property (other than a right to a benefit under, or an interest in a trust governed by, an employee benefit plan) deemed by subsection 128.1(4) to have been disposed of at the particular time, and that has not been subsequently disposed of before the beginning of the particular year, were not deemed by subsection 128.1(4) to have been disposed of by the individual at the particular time, and
C is the total of all amounts deemed under this or any other Act to have been paid on account of the individual’s tax under this Part for the emigration year, [14] and
(ii) if the particular year immediately follows the emigration year, the amount determined under subparagraph (i), and in any other case, the amount determined under this paragraph in respect of the individual for the taxation year that immediately precedes the particular year, […]
Where the AMT applies because of the deemed disposition resulting from the individual's emigration, we are of the view that the description of A in the formula in subparagraph 220(4.5)(a)(i) can refer to the amount of AMT payable by the individual for the year of emigration, since the AMT is provided for in Part I and, more specifically, in Division E.1. The description of B in the formula is the tax that would have been payable by the individual for the year of emigration if paragraph 128.1(4)(b) had not applied in respect of property not subsequently disposed of by the individual. Consequently, the election provided for in subsection 220(4.5) will allow the individual to defer only the payment of an amount of tax corresponding to the excess of the AMT over the tax that would otherwise have been payable by the individual for the year of emigration but for the application of paragraph 128.1(4)(b).
François Fournier-Gendron
October 9, 2025
2025-107159
FOOTNOTES
Note to reader: Because of our system requirements, the footnotes contained in the original document are shown below instead:
1 For example, subsection 120(2) provides that an amount of tax is deemed to have been paid to take into account the Quebec allowance; see also section 27 of the Federal-Provincial Fiscal Arrangements Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. F-8.
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