Like individuals, trusts have tax obligations to meet.

Principal changes for 2024

To find out what changed in the 2024 Trust Income Tax Return, see the Guide to Filing the Trust Income Tax Return (TP-646.G-V).

Succession liquidators

If you are a succession liquidator, you do not have to file the Trust Income Tax Return in the following situations:

• The deceased person's property is distributed immediately after the person's death or the succession did not earn any income before the distribution of the property. However, you must give each beneficiary a statement showing their share of the property of the succession.
• The succession's only income is a death benefit from the Québec Pension Plan or the Canada Pension Plan that is included in the income of one or more beneficiaries of the succession.

If a succession is wound up in its first taxation year, the beneficiaries can include in their income tax returns the income earned before the winding-up, based on their share of the succession's income.

Obligations

As a trustee, you must provide all the required information concerning the trust's income, deductions and credits in order to facilitate the calculation of the trust's income tax payable.

If necessary, you can rectify the trust's tax situation and avoid penalties by filing a voluntary disclosure.

Note that any taxpayer that carries out a confidential transaction, a transaction involving conditional remuneration, a transaction involving contractual coverage or a specified transaction (or that is a member of a partnership that carries out such a transaction) must disclose the transaction to us (mandatory disclosure).

A taxpayer may choose to disclose a transaction that they (or a partnership of which the taxpayer is a member) has started to carry out (preventive disclosure).

For more information, see “Rights and obligations of a trust as a taxpayer” in guide TP-646.G-V.

Income tax return

As a rule, a trust subject to Québec income tax for a given taxation year must file the Trust Income Tax Return (TP-646-V).

For information on how to complete the return and its schedules, see guide TP-646.G-V.

Documents to submit with the return

The documents that you'll need to submit with the return vary depending on the trust's situation and whether you file the return on paper or using software.

If the trust is required to file an income tax return, it must also file an RL-16 slip (see courtesy translation RL-16-T) for each beneficiary (including beneficiaries not resident in Québec) to whom it allocated a capital gain or income.

Filing deadline

As a trustee, you are responsible for filing the trust's income tax return. You must file it and all required documents within 90 days following the end of the trust's taxation year. Within the same time period, you must also pay any income tax owing and provide all beneficiaries with RL-16 slips.

For more information about the taxation years of trusts, see “General information” in guide TP-646.G-V.

Penalties

As a trustee, you must provide all the required information concerning the trust's income, deductions and tax credits in order to facilitate the calculation of the trust's income tax payable. The trust is liable to penalties and penal proceedings if you fail to provide certain information.

In addition, the trust is liable to a late-filing penalty if you fail to file the trust's return on time. When determining the amount of unpaid tax for the purposes of calculating a penalty, we take into account any losses carried forward from a previous taxation year.

For more information, see “Penalties” in guide TP-646.G-V.