What is a corporate minute book and why you need one?

A corporate minute book operates as the official record of your corporation’s activities. Any and all corporate transactions that involve your corporation should be documented in this book. Below are some documents that must be included:

• Articles of incorporation

• Corporation by-laws

• Registers of directors, officers, and shareholders’

• Resolutions of the directors and officers

• Notices and registrations filed with the registry

• Share certificates

• Meeting minutes

• Shareholders’ agreement

Bare Trusts: Advantages and Disadvantages

Bare Trusts

A bare trust is a legal structure that facilitates the separation of legal and beneficial ownership over a property.

Generally, it's used in a real estate context. A bare trustee company is created which is a BC corporation that holds the legally registered title on the property.

The beneficial ownership remains with the person who originally purchased the property. The beneficial owner is the person or persons who continue to make all arrangements; they're responsible for leasing the property, receiving rents and reporting income.

The beneficial owner is the real owner of the property.

The bare trustee company is the one that is actually on the title, the company name is registered in the land title office (the “LTO”). From a tax perspective, the trustee company isn't going to be reporting any taxes at all because they don't actually beneficial ownership of the property.

Essential Elements of an Employment Contract

As your small business begins to grow you may start considering hiring additional employees. When undertaking this process, it is important that you not only protect your business but also your employees. A good way to do this is through an employment contract. An employment contract is a legal document that outlines the terms and conditions for both, the employer and employee. Here are some essential elements that should be included in all employment contracts.

Terms of employment

The terms make up one of the most important elements. You want to specify whether it is a full-time, part-time, or temporary position. You may also want to indicate the length of the employment with a specific end date if the position is temporary. It is also important to indicate if you are going to implement a probationary period. Details such as the length of this probationary period should be included.

Many business owners don’t think about the structure of their business. At some point it’s likely that you’ll want to change from a sole proprietorship to an incorporation. We break down exactly when that point is.

Understanding Henson Trusts: An Essential Estate Planning Tool for Disabled Beneficiaries

Understand the essentials of employment contracts with Parr Business Law.

In this article, we’ll cover the following topics:

• Family property vs. excluded property

• Debt incurred during marriage

• Agreements between spouses during separation proceedings

When a married couple (or a non-married couple who has lived together for at least two years) separates, their shared property is divided according to guidelines set by the Family Law Act of British Columbia.

In this article, we’ll cover the following topics:

- What is income?

- What is a gift?

- How are gifts taxed?

- Exceptions to gift taxation

- Gifts from employers to employees

- Gifts of capital property

- Gift tax credits

What is income?

Before we discuss gifts and how they’re taxed, we need to first define income.

Vern Krishna, a leading Canada tax lawyer, defined income succinctly as a “measure of gain that derives from capital, from labor, or from both combined.”