Blog · Tax · September 16, 2026
After three years of deferrals, the revised trust reporting rules are here.
The bottom line: if your name is on an asset that really belongs to someone else, you likely have a bare trust — and starting with the 2026 tax year, many of these arrangements will have to file a T3 trust return. The first filings are due March 31, 2027. The deferrals are over.
The expanded trust reporting rules were supposed to start with the 2023 tax year. The rollout did not go well. After a wave of confusion (and a lot of parents on their kids' mortgages suddenly wondering if they were trustees), the CRA exempted bare trusts from filing for 2023, then 2024, then 2025, while the rules were redrafted.
The redraft is done. The revised rules apply starting with the 2026 tax year, which means the filings land in the spring 2027 filing season — alongside everything else. And if you are hoping for another last-minute deferral: these rules are tied to global anti-money-laundering and ownership-transparency commitments, so a cancellation is very unlikely this time.
The good news is the revised rules carve out more of the ordinary family situations that caused the panic the first time around. The exceptions are specific, and the fine print matters, but in general terms:
One common worry we can put to rest: a power of attorney, or simple signing authority on someone's account, does not by itself create a bare trust. Being added to the account as a holder is a different matter.
The bad news is that plenty of common arrangements are still caught. A corporate bank account opened in a shareholder's name. A nominee corporation on title to real estate. A partner holding an account for the partnership. Cost-sharing arrangements. A property manager holding client accounts. Foreign property held through a local nominee — the Mexican vacation home held through a bank trust (fideicomiso) is the classic example, and no, filing a T1135 does not cover it. If any of that sounds familiar, do not assume you are exempt — the exceptions were written narrowly on purpose.
Missing a required filing costs $25 per day, with a minimum of $100 and up to $2,500 — for each bare trust, for each year. If the CRA considers the failure deliberate or grossly negligent, the penalty jumps to the greater of $2,500 or 5% of the property's highest value in the year. On a $1,000,000 property, that is a $50,000 penalty — charged personally to the person or company on title, not the true owner. If you went on title as a favour to a family member, the exposure is yours.
You do not need to work out the exceptions yourself. Run through our one-minute Bare Trust Check — a few yes/no questions covering yourself, your spouse, and any corporations or entities you control. If nothing applies, your answer goes on file and you are done. If something might apply, book a short call and we will go through it together. Most arrangements turn out to be exempt, but we must identify them first to document why.
One more thing: if you filed a bare trust return or received a CRA trust account number back in 2023, when these rules first appeared, tell us. Old trust accounts need to be rolled forward or closed — otherwise the CRA can keep asking for returns, or issue penalties in error.
If you already have a trust that files a T3 return, nothing about your existing obligations goes away — our Trust (T3) Information Form collects what we need for those.
And if you would rather talk it through, contact our office and we will walk through the questions with you on a call.
This article is a general summary as of September 2026 and is not advice for any specific situation. The exceptions to these rules are detailed and fact-specific — please have your arrangement reviewed before concluding no filing is required.