Tan routes personal investing through a family trust. For a single Ontario founder this is usually the wrong tool and it is worth saying so plainly rather than forcing a lesson. Canadian family trusts carry the 21-year deemed disposition rule — the trust is treated as selling its assets every 21 years — and TOSI limits what you can do with the income. The setup and annual compliance cost is real.

The ordinary Canadian order of operations is better for you: RRSP and TFSA room first, then a corporate investment account if you have retained earnings — while watching the passive income grind, where investment income above $50,000 a year inside the associated corporate group starts clawing back the small business deduction, eliminating it entirely by $150,000. A trust earns its place when there are multiple beneficiaries and a freeze to attach it to, not as a wrapper for one person’s brokerage account.