T3 Filings: What is a Listed Trust?  

A listed trust is one that is generally exempt from filing a T3 return unless, it owes money to CRA.

There are many types of exempt returns. In this article, you’ll find the most common ones; in the next and last one in the series next week, we’ll discuss how bare trusts differ and the size of the penalties non-compliant trust filers can expect (spoiler – they are big!).

A listed trust includes:

• A trust that has been in existence for less than three months at the end of the year
• A trust that holds assets with a total fair market value that does not exceed $50,000 throughout the year.  What’s important here is that there is a qualifier on the type of assets held in this trust, noted below, and that if other assets are held, or the FMV exceeds $50,000 at any time of the year, filing is required.  The qualifying list of assets that can be held by the trust throughout the year are one or more of the following:
  • money (note this does not include collectible gold or silver coins, or gold or silver bars)
  • a debt obligation described in paragraph (a) of the definition "fully exempt interest" in subsection 212(3) of the ITA
  • a share, debt obligation, or right listed on a designated stock exchange
  • a share of the capital stock of a mutual fund corporation
  • a unit of a mutual fund trust
  • an interest in a related segregated fund (within the meaning assigned by paragraph 138.1(1)(a) of the Income Tax Act, and
  • an interest, as a beneficiary under a trust, that is listed on a designated stock exchange
• A trust that is required under the relevant rules of professional conduct or the laws of Canada or a province to hold funds for the purposes of the activity that is regulated under those rules or laws, provided the trust is not maintained as a separate trust for a particular client or clients (this provides an exception for a lawyer’s general trust account, but not for specific client accounts)
• A trust that is a registered charity
• A trust that is a club, society or association described in 149(1)(l) of the ITA, which is a exempts a club, society, or association that is not a charity and that is organized and operated solely for social welfare. civic improvement, pleasure or recreation
• A mutual fund trust, a related segregated fund trust, a trust, all of the units of which are listed on a designated stock exchange
• A trust prescribed to be a master trust
• A graduated rate estate
• A qualified disability trust
• An employee life and health trust
• A trust described under paragraph 81(1) (g.3); which refers to certain government funded trusts
•  A trust under or governed by a DPSP, EPSP, FHSA, PRPP, RDSP, RESP, RPP, RRIF, RRSP, TFSA, or a registered supplementary unemployment benefit plan
• A cemetery care trust or a trust governed by an eligible funeral arrangements

How does this differ from a bare trust?  That’s the subject of our next article in this series.

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