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Salary Deferral Arrangement Tax Rules: Insights and Impact on Executive Compensation in Canada

September 17, 2025 - 1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.
The salary deferral arrangement (SDA) provisions of the Income Tax Act (Canada) can subject individual taxpayers to tax on incentive and other deferred compensation awards before any amount is payable under the award. This potentially undermines the value of deferred compensation awards in attracting, retaining and incentivizing employees, officers and directors.

Join members of the Blakes Pensions, Benefits & Executive Compensation group for a discussion of Canada’s SDA tax rules and the key issues they raise for businesses. 

Event Details 
Wednesday, September 17, 2025
1 - 2 p.m. (ET)
Online

Topics 
  • Overview of the SDA provisions of the Income Tax Act (Canada)
  • Tax implications of SDAs for employees and employers
  • Prescribed exceptions to the SDA provisions and typical issues in practice
  • The Canada Revenue Agency’s latest views on restricted share units, appreciation rights plans and deferred share units
Mandatory Continuing Education
Ontario

This program contains up to 1 hour of Substantive content. 

British Columbia
This program has been accredited for up to 1.0 CPD Credit Hours with The Law Society of British Columbia.

Quebec
Please note that pursuant to the amendments to the Règlement sur la formation continue obligatoire des avocats (Regulation respecting mandatory continuing education for lawyers – available in French only) of the Barreau du Québec, which came into force on April 1, 2019, the status of “recognized provider” and the mandatory “recognition” of activities have been abolished.

Blakes will continue to provide you with a confirmation of participation for your records. As stipulated in the above-mentioned regulation, members must preserve supporting documents attesting their completion of training activities for a period of seven years beginning on April 30 following the end of the reference period during which such activities were completed. More insights