International financial centre

Recently Announced Change

Information Bulletin 2023-7 issued on December 19, 2023, by the Ministère des Finances announces a relaxation of the criterion governing an employee’s connection to a qualified establishment where the employee performs teleworking duties. This relaxation applies to a taxation year of a corporation that begins after December 19, 2023.

These tax measures were put in place by the Ministère des Finances to encourage the implementation and development of new projects by businesses specializing in international financial activities in the urban agglomeration of Montréal. To benefit from these tax measures, a corporation must hold the status of international financial centre (IFC).

"IFC" is the name given to a business or part of a business that carries out international financial activities and in respect of which it holds the qualification certificate and annual certificates required under the Act respecting the sectoral parameters of certain fiscal measures (CQLR chapter P-5.1) .

An IFC refers to a business or part of a business that meets the following conditions:

it is operated by a corporation; partnerships and tax-exempt corporations are not eligible
it proposes a project with new activities that:

must not have started more than 12 months before the date of the application for a qualification certificate, or 12 months before the addition of an activity to the qualification certificate
must start no later than 24 months after the date of the application for a qualification certificate

all of its activities relate to one or more qualifying international financial activities
it employs a minimum of six eligible employees at all times, including local employees and foreign specialists holding a qualification certificate and an annual certificate, at each of its eligible facilities
all qualifying international financial activities are conducted in one or more of the eligible facilities within the territory of the urban agglomeration of Montréal.