Income Tax Act — I-3.3 144.1
Definitions 144.1 (1) The following definitions apply in this section. actuary means a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries. ( actuaire ) class of beneficiaries of a trust means a group of beneficiaries who have identical rights or interests under the trust.  ( catégorie de bénéficiaires ) designated employee benefit means a benefit that is (a) from a group sickness or accident insurance plan; (b) from a group term life insurance policy; (c) from a private health services plan; (d) in respect of a counselling service described in subparagraph 6(1)(a)(iv); or (e) not a death benefit, but that would be a death benefit if the amounts determined for paragraphs (a) and (b) of the definition death benefit in subsection 248(1) were nil. ( prestation désignée ) employee means a current or former employee of an employer and includes an individual in respect of whom the employer has assumed responsibility for the provision of designated employee benefits as a result of the acquisition by the employer of a business in which the individual was employed. ( employé ) key employee , of an employer in respect of a taxation year, means an employee who (a) was at any time in the taxation year or in a preceding taxation year, a specified employee of the employer; or (b) was an employee whose employment income from the employer in any two of the five taxation years preceding the year exceeded five times the Year’s Maximum Pensionable Earnings (as determined under section 18 of the Canada Pension Plan ) for the calendar year in which the employment income was earned. ( employé clé ) Employee life and health trust (2) A trust that is established for employees of one or more employers (each referred to in this subsection as a “participating employer”) is an employee life and health trust for a taxation year if, throughout the taxation year, under the terms that govern the trust, (a) the only purpose of the trust is to provide benefits to, or for the benefit of, persons described in subparagraph (d)(i) or (ii) and all or substantially all of the total cost of the benefits is applicable to designated employee benefits; (b) on wind-up or reorganization, the property of the trust may only be distributed to (i) each remaining beneficiary of the trust who is described in subparagraph (d)(i) or (ii) (other than a key employee or an individual who is related to a key employee) on a pro rata basis, (ii) another employee life and health trust, or (iii) after the death of the last beneficiary described in subparagraph (d)(i) or (ii), Her Majesty in right of Canada or a province; (c) the trust meets one of the following conditions: (i) the trust is required to be resident in Canada, determined without reference to section 94, or (ii) if the condition in subparagraph (i) is not met, it is the case that (A) employee benefits are provided to employees who are resident in Canada and to employees who are not resident in Canada, (B) one or more participating employers are employers that are resident in a country other than Canada, and (C) the trust is required to be resident in a country in which a participating employer resides; (d) the trust may not have any beneficiaries other than persons each of whom is (i) an employee of a participating employer or former participating employer, (ii) an individual who, in respect of an employee of a participating employer or former participating employer, is (or, if the employee is deceased, was, at the time of the employee’s death) (A) the spouse or common-law partner of the employee, or (B) related to the employee and either a member of the employee’s household or dependent on the employee for support, (iii) another employee life and health trust, or (iv) Her Majesty in right of Canada or a province; (e) the trust meets one of the following conditions: (i) it contains at least one class of beneficiaries where (A) the members of the class represent at least 25% of all of the beneficiaries of the trust who are employee