Dividends are the payment of a corporation’s after-tax profit to its shareholders. They are not deductible to the company. When dividends are received by shareholders of the company, they are grossed-up for tax purposes and a dividend tax credit can be claimed. The purpose of the gross-up and dividend tax credit mechanism is to give the individual receiving the dividend credit for the tax that the Canadian payer corporation has already paid on the income giving rise to the dividend. In theory, the gross-up restores the dividend to the amount the corporation could have paid the individual had corporate tax not applied. The dividend tax credit approximates the corporate tax paid. The result is that you pay tax at your marginal rate on the notional income the corporation could have paid you if not for the corporate income tax, and you receive a refund (through the dividend tax credit) of the notional corporate tax paid on that income.
For tax purposes, there are two types of taxable dividends – non-eligible and eligible.
Non-eligible dividends
Non-eligible dividends are dividends distributed from active business income of the corporation that is eligible for the small business deduction. Dividends distributed by CCPCs from investment income are also non-eligible dividends. The only exception is for dividends paid to a CCPC from a public company. Since these dividends would have been an eligible dividend if they had been received directly by the shareholder, it makes sense for these same dividends to be considered eligible dividends if they are earned by a CCPC and then paid to the shareholder in the form of a dividend. This is part of the concept of income tax integration of the personal and corporate tax systems.
Prior to 2014, non-eligible dividends were subject to a 25% gross-up to the shareholder with a federal dividend tax credit rate of 16.67% of the actual dividend received or 13.33% of the grossed-up taxable dividend. Effective for 2014 and future years, non-eligible dividends are subject to an18 % gross-up to the shareholder with a federal dividend tax credit rate of 12.98% of the actual dividend received or 11% of the grossed-up taxable dividend. Each province also offers a provincial dividend tax credit, but the rates vary by province. Prior to 2006, all dividends received by shareholders from Canadian corporations were subject to the gross-up and dividend tax credit rates that applied to non-eligible dividends prior to 2014.
Eligible dividends
In 2006, the federal government enacted a reduction in personal income taxes on what are referred to as "eligible" dividends. This change was intended to help level the playing field between corporations and income trusts by giving the individual more credit for taxes paid by the corporation.
Eligible dividends will generally include dividends paid after 2005 by:
- CCPCs to the extent that their income (other than investment income) is subject to tax at the general corporate income tax rate
- public corporations, and
- other corporations that are not Canadian-controlled private corporations (CCPCs)
For the latter two corporations, they must be resident in Canada and subject to the general corporate income tax rate.
Dividends distributed from active income eligible for the small business deduction will not qualify as eligible dividends and are considered non-eligible dividends which are also discussed in this section. Dividends distributed by CCPCs from investment income are also not eligible dividends. The only exception is for dividends paid to a CCPC from a public company. Since these dividends would have been eligible dividends if they had been received directly by the individual shareholder, it makes sense for these same dividends to be considered eligible dividends if they are earned by a CCPC and then paid to the shareholder in the form of a dividend.
A CCPC will need to track the active business income above the small business deduction (SBD) on an annual basis and any portfolio dividends it has received to determine the amount of eligible dividends it can pay in a given year. Since eligible dividends need not be paid annually, the corporation will keep track of what can be paid as eligible dividends it its general-rate income pool (GRIP). GRIP is generally the surplus pool of a CCPC that was subjected to the higher rate of tax. Every year, a fixed percentage of taxable income > SBD limit is added to the GRIP pool. The rate used is intended to generate an amount equal to the after-tax earnings of the corporation, assuming a notional combined federal-provincial general corporate tax rate. This rate has changed over the years as it was 68% before 2010, 69% for 2010, 70% for 2011 and is set at 72% for 2012 and future years.
An enhanced gross-up and dividend tax credit is available for eligible dividends received by eligible shareholders. These enhanced rates make eligible dividends more tax advantageous than non-eligible dividends for shareholders.
When they were first introduced in 2006, eligible dividends were grossed-up by 45%, meaning that the shareholder included 145% of the actual dividend amount in income. The federal dividend tax credit on eligible dividends was also increased for eligible dividends from 13.33% to 18.975% of the grossed-up dividend. These rates remained in effect until 2009, but as general corporate tax rates were reduced, so were the eligible dividend gross-up and dividend tax credit rates as follows:
2008 & 2009 2010 2011 2012 & beyond
Gross-up 45% 44% 41% 38%
Federal DTC % of gross-up 18.975% 17.98% 16.44% 15.02%
Federal DTC % of actual 27.50% 25.88% 23.17% 20.73%
Federal top federal MTR 14.55% 15.88% 17.72% 19.29%
* The provinces each offer their own provincial dividend tax credit at varying rates