Income Trusts

What Happened to the Income Trusts?

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This article was published in the September 2011 edition of the Canadian MoneySaver, and is posted here with permission. For more information visit www.canadianmoneysaver.ca January 1st, 2011, was the deadline for Canadian income trusts (other than REITs – Real Estate Investment Trusts) to convert to corporations. I examine the basic changes of income trusts into corporations, and what’s happened to these high-yield dividend payers. Now that almost all income trusts have converted to corporations, which ones are still worth holding? The Cash Cow In Canada, income trusts were created as an alternative to the corporate structure.  The first income trust …

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MLP Taxation in Canadian Accounts

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The following post is written by Brian So, an insurance advisor and blogger at briansoinsurance.com. Introduction to MLPs Master Limited Partnerships, or MLPs, are publicly traded investment partnerships based in the U.S. They combine the liquidity of a publicly traded company with the tax efficiency of limited partnerships. The business is structured with a general partner in charge of operations, and limited partners providing the capital. Units of the partnership represent the limited partner’s stake in the company, and are traded publicly on stock exchanges. In order to qualify as a MLP, the partnership must derive at least 90% of …

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Time to Sell Enercare?

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Recently a reader asked me to take a look at Enercare (ECI), formerly the Consumer Water Heaters Income Fund (CWI.UN ).  As I mentioned in a previous article – The Income Trust Countdown – many income trusts were purchased by investors only for the dividend yield, and in some cases that yield exceeded 10%. Of course with high yield comes high risk – but many investors seem to be indifferent to that fact. Now that most of these trusts have converted to corporations (other than REITs), they are under different tax rules and dividend obligations. Some Income Trusts have had …

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