14 August 1989 Administrative Letter 74106 F - Taxability of Government Annuity

Please note that the following document, although believed to be correct at the time of issue, may not represent the current position of the CRA.
Prenez note que ce document, bien qu'exact au moment émis, peut ne pas représenter la position actuelle de l'ARC.

Subject:  19(1) Taxability of Government Annuity

This is in reply to your memorandum of June 23, 1989 which was referred to our Division for reply.

Since you are aware of the background to this case and our prior comments we will not again reiterate them here except to state that in our opinion 19(1) annuity payments are taxable under the provisions of subparagraph 56(1)(a)(i) of the Income Tax Act as previously advised.

19(1) present argument is that the annuity was personally acquired by with the encouragement of his former employer but outside of his former employer's pension plan.

We have reexamined our files on this matter and have again concluded that the annuity in question was acquired through his employer's pension plan as it then existed and it must be treated in the manner described.  It is regrettable that 19(1) may have been misinformed about what he was acquiring, nevertheless we are of the opinion that our position cannot be altered on this basis.

We draw to your attention the attached letters obtained from our files.  These clearly indicate that our position has been known to 19(1) former employer since, at least, June of 1949.

for DirectorFinancial Industries DivisionRulings Directorate