dividend – Resources For Canadian Business Owners

Subject to the Articles, the directors of a corporation may declare and a corporation may pay a stock dividend by issuing fully paid shares of the corporation or options or rights to acquire fully paid shares of the corporation.

All shareholders of a corporation own shares. When a dividend is declared upon a class of shares of a corporation all shareholders that hold shares of that class are entitled to receive the dividend equally in proportion to the number of shares they own.

To understand how these dividends are declared, consider the following scenario. The directors of the Corporation approve a stock dividend on the issued common shares of a company on the basis of 10 common shares for every issued and outstanding share owned. The corporation has the following shareholders:

John Doe (holding 10 common shares)

Jim Holding Company Limited (holding 20 common shares)

If a stock dividend is declared on the issued shares of a corporation providing for ten:one ratio, after the stock dividend is issued the additional number of shares each shareholder will own is:

John Doe (10 x 10) – 100 common shares

Jim Holding Company Limited (20 x 10) = 200 common shares

The total number of shares owned by each shareholder including the original number of shares held and the additional shares allotted pursuant to the stock dividend are:

John Doe – 110 common shares

Jim Holding Company Limited – 220 common shares

Subsequent to the approval of a stock dividend each of the shareholders having a right to the stock dividend shall receive a share certificate for the additional shares they received.

Below is an example of a directors resolution approving a stock dividend:

Buy Dividend Resolutions

If you wish to make things easy refer to this link for a number of templates that can be purchased relating to Approving Dividends Templates.

For more information about dividends refer to:

Declaring a Dividend

Capital Dividend

Capital Dividend Upon Redemption

Under certain circumstances, and provided the Articles of the Corporation provide, the directors of a Corporation may approve a deemed capital dividend upon redemption of a class of shares.

Redemption of Shares Resulting in a Capital Dividend upon Redemption

When shares are redeemed they are cancelled and, in some cases, returned to Treasury. The Articles of a corporation set out the basis pursuant to which a class of shares can be redeemed and the amount of money those shares can be redeemed for. If the Articles do not contain any provisions for redemption, the shares cannot be redeemed.

Statute Governing Capital Dividends Upon Redemption

Section 83 of the Income Tax Act (Canada) governs the basis upon which a capital dividend can be declared . Refer to Section 83 of the Income Tax Act for more information on the legal requirements to be followed when declaring a capital dividend upon redemption.

Director Approval of a Capital Dividend Upon Redemption

The directors of a Corporation must approve a capital dividend upon redemption and a certified copy of such resolution must be filed with Revenue Canada Agency along with the election form.

Once issued shares of a corporation are redeemed, the share certificate evidencing those shares will be marked cancelled and the share register for those shares will be reduced by the number of shares redeemed.

Example of Directors Resolution Approving Capital Dividend Upon Redemption

Below is an example of a directors resolution approving a deemed capital dividend upon redemption:

Certified copy of Resolution of the Directors Approving a Capital Dividend upon the Redemption of Shares:

Many statutes will have a legal requirement which provides that a company cannot declare a dividend unless there are reasonable grounds it will be able to pay its liabilities. Below is a form of confirmation of Solvency by the President of a company upon a redemption.