Honey: Tax Court Restricts Interest Deduction in 10/8 Insurance Arrangement to an Arm’s Length Rate
October 5, 2026
By Patrick Uzan (Vice-President, Professional Services, PPI)
On September 15, 2026, the Tax Court of Canada released its decision in Honey v. The King, 2026 TCC 170 (“Honey”). The Court dismissed the appeals of Glenn Honey and Greg Honey and upheld the Minister’s decision to restrict interest deductions arising from their 10/8 life insurance arrangements to a rate of 4.18%, rather than the contractual rate of 10%.
The decision should not have a material impact on traditional immediate financing arrangements (“IFAs”). The features that drove the Court’s conclusion in Honey are not present in a conventional IFA.
The 10/8 arrangements
The Honey brothers indirectly owned equal interests in Honey Bee Manufacturing Ltd. (“Honey Bee”). In 2006, each purchased a universal life insurance policy from RBC Life Insurance Company. Each policy had a $19 million base death benefit, with Honey Bee designated as beneficiary.
The policies formed part of what was commonly known as a 10/8 arrangement (1). Each policy included a collateral investment account (“CIA”) that provided a guaranteed annual return of 8% on a tax-exempt basis. Each brother also entered into an investment credit facility (“ICF”) under which amounts could be borrowed at a fixed interest rate of 10%.
The two components were contractually linked. The value of the CIA was required to equal the amount borrowed under the ICF, and the insurance policy and CIA were assigned to the lender as security. Each brother drew funds from his shareholder account with Honey Bee, deposited an amount into the CIA, borrowed an equal principal amount under the ICF, net of 2% partial interest paid in advance, and lent the net borrowing proceeds to Honey Bee. The brothers claimed deductions under subparagraph 20(1)(c)(i) of the Income Tax Act (the “Act”) for the 10% interest paid on the ICF loans.
The Minister did not dispute that the borrowed money had been used for an income-earning purpose. Instead, the Minister concluded that 10% was not a “reasonable amount” of interest for purposes of paragraph 20(1)(c). CRA allowed interest calculated at 4.18% and disallowed the balance.
The Court’s decision
The central issue was the fourth requirement for interest deductibility identified by the Supreme Court of Canada in Shell Canada Ltd. v. Canada, 3 S.C.R. 622 (“Shell”): the amount claimed must be calculated at a reasonable rate.
In Shell, the Supreme Court stated:
“Where an interest rate is established in a market of lenders and borrowers acting at arm’s length from each other, it is generally a reasonable rate.”
The Honey brothers argued that the relevant market was the “market” for 10/8 insurance products. Other insurers offered substantially similar arrangements with an 8% policy-account return and a 10% borrowing rate. They maintained that the availability of these products demonstrated that 10% was a market-established, and therefore reasonable rate.
Justice Russell rejected that position. In the Court’s view, the 8% and 10% rates were predetermined elements of an integrated insurance product rather than rates produced by genuine lending-market forces.
The Court also characterized the movement of money as circular. Funds came from Honey Bee through the brothers’ shareholder accounts, were deposited into the CIAs, supported matching borrowings under the ICFs, and were then lent to Honey Bee. Based on the circular and effectively self-funded character of the transactions, Justice Russell concluded that the arrangements did not satisfy the arm’s-length market premise underlying the statement in Shell.
Finally, the decision was significantly influenced by the burden of proof. The Minister had assumed that public-market debt instruments were appropriate comparators and that 4.18% was reasonable. That rate was between ten-year benchmark yields of 4% and 4.68% and within the Crown expert’s stated range of 3.5% to 4.5%. The Court concluded that the taxpayers had not provided sufficient evidence of comparable market rates to support that the rate was an arm’s length determined rate; therefore, the Court could not conclude that any rate above 4.18%, was reasonable.
Why the decision should not affect traditional IFAs
A traditional IFA is materially different from the arrangement considered in Honey.
First, a conventional IFA does not ordinarily provide the policyholder with a guaranteed investment return set in direct relation to the borrowing rate. The defining feature of the Honey arrangement was the coordinated 8% return and 10% borrowing rate. In a traditional IFA, policy values arise under the terms and experience of the insurance policy, while the loan generally bears an independently determined commercial rate.
Second, a traditional IFA does not ordinarily require a matching deposit into a special policy account as a condition of each loan advance. In Honey, the CIA had to equal the ICF balance, and the brothers had to contribute the funds that supported the advances.
Third, the pricing of a traditional IFA loan is normally connected to ordinary commercial lending conditions. The interest rate may reflect a benchmark rate, lender spread, borrower creditworthiness, collateral coverage, guarantees, loan-to-value limits and other customary lending considerations. Unlike the fixed 10% rate in Honey, the rate is not selected to complement a guaranteed return within the policy.
Finally, the decision in the Honey case does not hold that borrowing secured by life insurance is inherently objectionable. Nor did the Court deny the deductions because the borrowed money lacked an income-earning use. The decision dealt with the narrower question of whether the full 10% interest charge represented a reasonable amount under paragraph 20(1)(c) of the Act. and the Court allowed what was determined as reasonable (being 4.18%) based on the evidence provided.
Practical implications
Honey demonstrates the importance of maintaining evidence supporting the commercial reasonableness of an interest rate, particularly where insurance and financing transactions are closely connected.
For traditional IFAs, the primary lesson is documentation rather than structural invalidity:
The insurance need should be established independently,
The loan should be subject to genuine independent commercial underwriting, and
The interest rate should be supportable by customary lending factors.
The arrangements should also avoid any suggestion that the policy return and loan rate have been coordinated.
Subject to any appeal, the Honey decision should therefore be limited to the unique facts of the 10/8 arrangement, not as a general rejection of using insurance as collateral for a loan. The Tax Court upheld the 4.18% rate because the Honey brothers failed to demonstrate that the predetermined 10% rate was reasonable.
(1) Traditional 10/8 arrangements are no longer offered in the market following the 2013 amendments to the Income Tax Act, which introduced a specific definition of a “10/8 policy” and existing arrangements were consequently unwound or restructured so that they would no longer fall within the statutory definition of a 10/8 policy. Most 10/8 arrangements that were wound up or restructured are now statue-barred (returns generally become statue-barred three years after the date that the CRA mails the original Notice of Assessment unless certain exceptions are met, for instance the taxpayer filed a waiver).
This document is for general information purposes and advisor use. The information contained in this document must not be taken or relied upon by the reader as legal, accounting, taxation, financial, actuarial or other advice made to them, or to any other person or firm, by PPI or any of its affiliates. Please refer to insurance company illustrations, policy contracts and information folders regarding any insurance matters referred to in this document. Readers must seek independent professional advice with regard to the verification and use of the information contained in this document. Copying or reproduction of this document is not allowed without the express prior written consent of PPI. October 2026.
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