Adding a Corporation
In Snap you can show both a Holdco and Opco in the same corporation. It isn't necessary to show 2 separate corporations because Snap separates and appropriately taxes active business income and passive income. Modelling the corporation as a single entity in Snap will allow the software to account for aspects such as Small Business Deduction adjustments when passive income is higher than $50,000 per year.
Watch a 9-minute summary video for a quick overview of planning for corporations in Snap.
To add a corporation to your projections, please follow these steps:
In this article:
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Enter the Corporation Details
Click the Add Corporation button from the Planning Pages or Scenario Setup -> Corporations.
Enter the Corporation Name and select the Province of incorporation. Update the Federal Limit and Provincial Limit for the Small Business Deduction (SBD) if needed. For example, if a corporation does not qualify for the SBD, enter $0 for the federal and provincial limits.
- Snap Projections reduces the Small Business Deduction (SBD) automatically if the aggregate adjusted investment income exceeds the $50,000 threshold. The SBD is automatically reduced by $5 for each $1 of investment income over $50k until the full SBD is removed at $150k. (This applies to the federal SBD and all provinces except Ontario and New Brunswick.)
Next, enter existing balances for the eligible and non-eligible Refundable Dividend Tax on Hand (RDTOH), Capital Dividend Account (CDA), and General Rate Income Pool (GRIP). These balances can be left at $0 if they are unknown. These balances are tracked on the Corporate Planning page under the Notional Account Balances table (accessible by clicking the blue icon at the top of the Balances column).
To have Snap automatically pay capital dividends to shareholders of the corporation proportionately once a certain CDA balance has been reached, enter a value for the Automatic Dividend Threshold. If this entry is left blank, you can pay out capital dividends manually on the corporate Planning page.
Specify the ownership of the corporation. The ownership will determine where dividends can be allocated in the software and how much of the corporate Net Worth to reflect in the client's Planning page and Estate Summary.
Next, select the corporate Disposition Method, enter the Adjusted Cost Base of the corporate shares, and enter any Paid-Up Capital balance. Snap uses these values to adjust the Net Worth and Tax on Estate for the corporate disposition on death. Snap will automatically save your inputs as you enter them. Once you're ready to proceed with other inputs you can click Next.
The remainder of the data entry for this corporation can be entered by selecting the Next button at the bottom of each subsequent page, or by selecting a different Scenario Setup page from the left navigation.
To edit any of the originally entered corporate details, select Scenario Setup -> Corporations, or select the pencil icon under Actions on the Corporations page.
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Enter the Corporate Assets
Go to Scenario Setup -> Assets making sure to select the corporation you want to work on.
Click Add Financial Asset and fill in the details for each asset. See Entering Corporate Assets for more details. Even if there are no existing corporate financial assets, please enter a placeholder account with a $0 value so that future surplus cash can be saved to this account.
Asset Values are start-of-year balances.
Click Add Real Asset to enter the corporately owned properties. See Entering Corporate Assets for more details.
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Enter the Coporate Debts
Go to Scenario Setup -> Debts and then select the corporation you want to work on. Click Add Debt and fill in the details for each debt.
The debt Balance values are start-of-year figures.
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Enter the Corporate Insurance
Go to Scenario Setup -> Insurance and then select the corporation you want to work on. Click Add Insurance Policy and fill in the details for each policy. See Entering Corporate-owned Life Insurance for more details. Remember you can copy and paste insurance information directly from a spreadsheet.
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Using the Corporate Planning page
On the Corporate Planning page, you can edit or interact with all values in blue or purple font. The end-of-year corporate values are displayed under the Net Worth column and the After-Tax Estate/Market Value (which is clickable for more detail). You can click all blue icons at the top of the columns to see expanded details. (Taxable Investment Income, Income Tax, Balances)
You can enter Business Income, set up a Salary for the client or spouse, and enter Expenses if these details are known. You can add Other Income and show specific contributions and withdrawals for corporate Financial Assets. The rates of return and asset allocation for the accounts can be adjusted on the Planning page as well. If you wish to take the funds out of the corporation using dividends you can enter Non-Eligible dividends, Eligible dividends, and Capital dividends for any shareholder of the corporation. The articles listed below provide further information.
- Setting up salary, expenses, and savings for the corporation
- Taking the funds out of the corporation
- Changing the rates of return or asset allocation throughout the projections