Alternative minimum tax recovery in Canada: a CPD course for CPAsYour clients paid AMT.
Now get it back.
They were told it would come back. For many, it hasn’t. Learn a two-phase approach and a dozen worked strategies to stop AMT recurring and recover the carryforward before the seven years run out.
Watch the Trailer (1 Min)
AMT Doesn’t Come Back on Its Own
The 2024 changes broadened the base, lifted the rate and cut personal credits in half. Clients paid substantial AMT on the promise of recovery.
Then 2025 arrived. No recovery, a token one, or more AMT. The profile that triggered it once triggers it again.
Left on autopilot, the carryforward expires and becomes a permanent tax.
You Have a Client Carrying Forward AMT
Especially if the AMT came from one of these four profiles.
Investors with Large Gains
Capital gains, loss claims, interest and counsel fees, often together.
Tax Shelter Investors
Shelter deductions financed with deductible interest.
Stock Option Holders
A large exercise and sale relative to other income.
Major Donors
Large gifts of public stock alongside other causes.
After 90 Minutes, You Will Be Able To
- Diagnose whether AMT is a one-off or built into the profile.
- Calculate how much comes back each year.
- Combine strategies without raising regular tax.
- Spot the moves that look helpful but backfire.
- Plan for death, departure, trusts and expiry.
- Explain to clients why AMT hasn’t come back.
What the Seminar Covers
One 90-minute recording that works through six topics, from why AMT recurs to the cases where it is lost.
Topic 1Why AMT Is Growing, Not Shrinking
Why AMT Is Growing, Not Shrinking
- Why the 2024 reforms produce AMT that recurs: a broader base, a 20.5% rate and personal credits cut to 50%.
- The stealth capital gains increase: 20.5% AMT sits 4% above the 16.5% federal rate on a gain, and 5% to 6% with provincial AMT everywhere except Quebec.
- The overlap between regular planning and AMT planning, and why only moves inside it are worth making.
- Diagnosing the cause first: a one-off event or intrinsic to the client profile.
Topic 2Regular Tax vs. AMT, Line by Line
Regular Tax vs. AMT, Line by Line
- How tax shelters, rental and other interest, investment counsel fees, dividends and employment expenses are treated under each system.
- Capital gains at 100% inclusion for AMT, capital losses effectively 50%, the capital gains exemption and donated public stock at 30%, and the stock option deduction reduced to nil.
- Rate, dividend tax credit, foreign tax credit, personal exemptions and the donation credit rate under each system.
- How a modest economic gain can become a far larger AMT inclusion, and why matching gains and losses in the same year matters.
Topic 3The Clusters That Cause AMT
The Clusters That Cause AMT
- Large capital gains, net capital loss claims, interest and investment counsel fees, worst in combination.
- Tax shelters financed with deductible interest.
- Large stock option deductions, and how large they have to be to matter.
- Large donations, especially of public stock, which aggravate AMT alongside other factors.
- The rarer fifth cluster: large non-capital losses, including how a trust with large losses can still end up paying AMT.
Topic 4The Three Recovery Strategies, Worked Through
The Three Recovery Strategies, Worked Through
- Multiply the AMT exemption: when deliberately not splitting pension income increases annual recovery.
- Change the income mix without inflating regular tax: switching eligible dividends to deductible salary, and incorporating a portfolio to stop AMT recurring.
- Realize capital gains in a holding company: a capital dividend, corporate tax paid, and a retained amount.
- Spousal loans: lending at or above the prescribed rate to move income without attribution and create recovery room.
- Why the strategies compound when combined.
Topic 5Strategies That Don’t Work, and Why
Strategies That Don’t Work, and Why
- Tax moves that backfire: claiming a smaller capital loss, skipping interest or RRSP deductions, premature RRSP withdrawals.
- Non-tax moves that backfire: reshaping a portfolio away from capital gains, or refusing to realize gains.
- The income continuum: why salary, interest, pension and RRIF income recover AMT far better than eligible dividends.
- Realizing gains and losses in the same year to avoid the carryforward and carryback treatment.
Topic 6The Hard Cases: Death, Departure, Trusts and Expiry
The Hard Cases: Death, Departure, Trusts and Expiry
- AMT in the year of death: declining the spousal rollover to create a gain that absorbs the carryforward.
- Non-residents and part-year departures, and why holding Canadian real estate in a corporation may be the only real answer.
- Trusts: no exemption and no salary, and the planning ideas that can still work.
- The seven-year expiry: weighing a large RRSP withdrawal against the cost of letting a carryforward expire.
- Provincial AMT lost on a change of province, and why Quebec sits outside the system.
Knowledge Assessment and 1.5-Hour CPD Certificate
Worked Examples with the Full Figures
Each case isolates one lever so you see exactly what it does to regular tax, AMT and the recovery.
Multiplying the Exemption
Why the obvious income split isn’t always the one that recovers most.
The Spousal Loan
Moving investment income at the prescribed rate, with no attribution.
Gains and Losses
How an ordinary economic gain becomes a far larger AMT inclusion.
Changing the Income Mix
Dividends to salary, and incorporating a portfolio.
The Final Return
Using the year of death, when AMT does not apply, to absorb the carryforward.
The Expiring Carryforward
When creating income just to absorb AMT is worth the cost.
Taught by Practising Tax Specialists
Michael Cadesky
FCPA, FCA, FTIHK, CTA, TEP (Emeritus)
Managing partner at Cadesky Tax and a contributor to the profession since 1980. Past governor of the Canadian Tax Foundation, past chair of STEP Canada and STEP Worldwide, and co-author of 11 books on tax.
Hugh Woolley
CPA, CA, TEP
Independent tax consultant who has taught income tax for over 30 years. Has written courses for CPA Canada and more than 10 papers for the Canadian Tax Foundation and STEP Canada, and wrote butterfly rulings at the CRA’s Rulings Directorate.
Everything Included with Registration
365 days of access from registration.
- 1.5h verifiable CPD certificate
- Full 90-minute seminar recording
- Presentation slides
- Knowledge assessment
- 365 days of access
Common Questions
How is AMT recovered in Canada?
AMT paid in a year can be carried forward for seven years. In a later year, the amount recovered is the lesser of regular tax minus AMT for that year, and the remaining AMT carryforward. If AMT is equal to or higher than regular tax, nothing is recovered.
How long can an AMT carryforward be used?
Seven years. Any AMT carryforward not recovered by the end of the seventh year expires, which effectively turns it into a permanent tax.
Who is this course for?
Canadian CPAs and tax practitioners with clients who paid AMT after the 2024 reforms, especially clients with large capital gains, tax shelters, stock option deductions, large donations or loss carryforwards.
Can I start right away?
Yes. AMT Recovery Mission was recorded live on June 4, 2026 and is available on demand. Register and start immediately.
Does this course provide verifiable CPD?
Yes. You receive a certificate of completion for 1.5 hours of verifiable CPD once you finish the program and the knowledge assessment.
What is included and how much does it cost?
Registration is $75 CAD, and includes 365 days of access to the full seminar recording, the slides and a knowledge assessment.
Keep Building Your Personal Tax Practice
AMT Recovery Mission is one course in the Personal Tax learning path. These pair well with it.
AMT Recovery Mission
1.5h CPD on recovering alternative minimum tax paid after the 2024 reforms.
Alternative Minimum Tax
1.5h CPD on who the reformed AMT catches and how it is calculated.
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Recover It Before the Seven Years Run Out
A 90-minute seminar with a dozen strategies you can apply to this year’s returns.