March 2013 Federal Budget Provisions Concerning Pipeline Abandonment Trusts

The March 21, 2013 Federal Budget changed the tax law applicable to the pipeline abandonment trust (Trust) structure that has been submitted to the National Energy Board (NEB) as the proposed mechanism for setting aside funds for the cost of abandoning interprovincial and international pipelines subject to NEB jurisdiction. As a result, the qualifying environmental trust (QET) rules in the Income Tax Act (Act) will apply to the proposed Trusts with the result that funds for pipeline abandonment held in the Trust will be subject to the double tax inherent in the QET regime. This is not expected to pose material problems for any particular pipeline company or shipper. However, over the course of the lives of the Trusts, this change is likely to add hundreds of millions of tax dollars to Government coffers. Published on the Bennett Jones Thought Network.