Health and welfare trust

A Health and welfare trust (HAWT) or Health and welfare plan (HAWP) is a Canadian tax-free vehicle for financing a corporation's healthcare costs for their employees. They were introduced in 1986 by Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) in their interpretation bulletin entitled IT-85R2. Many companies offer this product to Canadian employers.

Structure

A HWT is a bank account established exclusively for the purpose of health care spending. They are a part of the family of health spending accounts in the world of group benefits in Canada.

A Health & Welfare Trust (HWT) is an arrangement through which an employer can provide certain benefit programs to employees, including a private health services plan ("PHSP") as defined under the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) guidelines. One or more employees may be covered under an HWT. An HWT is a specific trust that satisfies certain requirements as set out in CRA guidelines (specifically paragraph 6 of the Interpretation Bulletin IT-85R2 - Health and Welfare Trusts for Employees)

These requirements are as follows:

(a) The funds of the HWT cannot revert to the employer or be used for any purpose other than providing the health and welfare benefits for which the contributions are made;

(b) The employer's contributions to the fund must not exceed the amounts required to provide the benefits;

(c) The payment made by the employer cannot be made on a voluntary or gratuitous basis. In other words, once the payment plan is established it cannot change during the policy year. The contributions must be enforceable by trustees should the employer decide not to make the payments required;

(d) The trust is a legal arrangement between the employer, a third-party acting as the administrator and an independent trustee. The expenses to be paid out of the trust must qualify as medical expenses as defined by CRA (specifically subsection 118.2(2) of the Act).