In Scott Slipp Nissan Ltd. v. Canada (Attorney General), 2005 FC 1477, the Federal Court held that section 295 of the Excise Tax Act did not authorize the Minister to refuse to disclose portions of an audit report merely because the portions contained information about third parties. (Section 295 is similar to section 241 of the Income Tax Act.) The Court found that the taxpayer’s right to the information needed to answer fully the Minister’s assumptions at the audit stage limited the Minister’s discretion to refuse to provide that information, even if the Minister wished to do so in the name of protecting the privacy of third parties.
