News & Updates
Federal government's proposed amendments to Income Tax Act include pension-related changes
September 08, 2025
The federal government recently released proposed amendments to the Income Tax Act and its related regulations, including several pension-related changes.
The proposed amendments include:
- A new exception from taxation for an amount transferred from a registered pension plan to an unclaimed property authority in respect of an unlocated individual (the amount would be included in tax when the unclaimed property authority subsequently pays the amount to a taxpayer);
- A new provision to permit a direct transfer of an amount from a registered retirement income fund to a defined benefit provision of a registered pension plan to purchase past service benefits;
- New provisions allowing employers to make contributions to a pension plan to ensure that the plan has sufficient assets to pay for legacy pension benefits of “orphaned” employees (i.e., those whose former employer no longer participates in plan for ongoing benefit accumulation of employees);
- A new exception from the beneficial ownership reporting requirements to a subset of retirement compensation arrangements whose primary purpose is to provide top-up retirement benefits provided under one or more specified registered retirement vehicles;
- Provisions for the commutation and transferral of an annuity contract on a tax-deferred basis in certain instances; and
- Additional and amended exceptions on the list of prohibited investments for registered pension plans.
Click ‘More Information’ below to review the proposed amendments:
