The Canada Revenue Agency published a Tax Tip on August 26, 2026 and updated its T3 Who should file page on August 28, 2026. Together they restate the near-term filing position for bare trusts rather than announce a new regime.

In Important updates to the trust reporting requirements for the 2025 taxation year, the CRA said bare trusts are not expected to file a T3 return or Schedule 15 for the 2025 taxation year. The same Tax Tip gives advance notice that reporting may apply for 2026 and later years under subsections 150(1.3) and 150(1.31) of the Income Tax Act.

The updated Who should file guidance for a trust’s T3 return reiterates that bare trusts remain exempt from the enhanced trust reporting rules for 2024 and 2025. It also restates how the Agency views a bare trust and walks through familiar scenarios, including joint accounts and cases in which a parent holds legal title for a child.

Those fact patterns are the practical issue for many Canadian households and private investors. Informal nominee holdings—joint bank or brokerage accounts, in-trust-for accounts, and real property registered in one name while beneficial ownership sits elsewhere—are the arrangements most often debated as bare trusts. The August pages reduce 2025 filing uncertainty. They do not repeal the statutory reporting framework that can apply in later years.

The CRA is already signalling 2026. Certain reportable bare trusts are expected to file for taxation years ending on or after December 31, 2026, consistent with the reporting architecture associated with Bill C-15. These August materials are not a complete 2026 compliance manual. No new court cases, Department of Finance proposals, or Parliamentary activity on this file were identified after August 22, 2026.

What the primary CRA sources confirm is limited and specific:

  • Bare trusts are not expected to file a T3 or Schedule 15 for 2025.
  • The 2024 and 2025 exemption is restated, with definitional examples such as joint accounts and parent-child title.
  • Subsections 150(1.3) and 150(1.31) are flagged for 2026 and subsequent years where an arrangement remains reportable.

What is not confirmed in these pages is how 2026 filing-season rules will operate in practice, including which remaining bare-trust arrangements will be treated as reportable and how any exemptions or related-party carve-outs will be administered. Until the CRA issues that guidance, 2026 obligations should be treated as flagged, not fully specified.

This summary is not tax, legal, or investment advice. Investors and families with informal trusts or nominee title should read the CRA Tax Tip and the Who should file page against their own facts and obtain professional Canadian tax advice where the arrangement is material.