In Melnyk v. The Queen, 2007 TCC 733, and Beauchamp v. The Queen, 2007 TCC 747, the Tax Court refused to allow a taxpayer to deduct legal fees paid to defend against a claim for increased support payments. The Court in Melnyk cited the following passage from Nadeau v. M.N.R., [2004] 1 F.C. 587, [2004] 1 C.T.C. 293, [2004] D.T.C. 5736, 2003 FCA 400 (at ΒΆ18):
Conversely, the expenses incurred by the payer of support (either to prevent it from being established or increased, or to decrease or terminate it) cannot be considered to have been incurred for the purpose of earning income, and the courts have never recognized any right to the deduction of these expenditures (see, for example, Bayer, supra).
