Burden shifting

In Monsell v R, 2019 TCC 5, the taxpayer received payments for no consideration from a corporation to which she was related. The CRA subsequently reassessed the corporation for additional taxes for a number of years and then assessed the taxpayer under section 160 of the Income Tax Act (Canada) in respect of the payments she had received. The taxpayer argued that the CRA had the burden of proving the correctness of the corporate reassessments that gave rise to the underlying tax. The Court agreed for some of the years because the taxpayer had had nothing to do with the corporate filings in question and had no access to information relevant to the tax liability for those years. The Court, however, held that the taxpayer bore the onus for one of the years because she did have access to relevant information.

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