1979 (Ontario)

Bernie Katchen is counsel at Shibley Righton LLP in the firm’s Toronto office, with more than 30 years of tax and estate planning experience.  Bernie has expertise in corporate income taxation, personal income taxation, trusts and estates, REITs and income funds, and the taxation of charities and non-profit organizations.

Bernie brings his entrepreneurial background and extensive legal experience to help clients structure their affairs to pay the least amount of corporate or personal tax as required under the law.  Effective tax planning requires extensive knowledge of the Income Tax Act, thorough understanding of the “object and spirit of the Act”, and the real-world experience of how these rules may be interpreted.  Examples of Bernie’s business and legal experience that demonstrate effective tax planning include:

• Created a structure to offset unrealized capital losses against realized capital gains and acquired more than 30 corporations with greater than $140,000,000 of usable capital gains and losses,
• Created a structure to acquire and resell $17,000,000 of Canadian capital dividend accounts from wholly-owned subsidiaries of U.S. corporations,  
• Assisted in the design of a transaction to allow the donation of flow through shares to charity.

Bernie Katchen initially joined the firm in 1979 and left in 1984 to pursue a tax related entrepreneurial career. He came back to the practice of law in 2001 after having completed a Master of Tax at the University of Waterloo.

Bernie is an avid bridge player and frustrated golfer.  He has been married for the past 30 years, and has three children and one grandchild.

He would be happy to meet with you to discuss all of your tax and estate planning needs.

T: 416.214.5223
F: 416.214.5423
bernie.katchen@shibleyrighton.com

Queens University, B.Comm, 1969
Osgoode Hall Law School, LL.B, 1977
University of Waterloo, MTax, 2000