In Guindon v R, 2012 TCC 287, Mr Justice Bedard wrote the following about the onus of proof when the Minister seeks to impose gross negligence penalties:
VD fees
Are VD fees (voluntary disclosure fees) deductible? The CRA takes the position that, in general, professional fees incurred in respect of a VD are not deductible unless they were incurred in respect of a business. Per 2016-0625731C6, when the CRA…
Partnership Losses
Natasha Reid and David Davies, “Tiered Partnership Losses” Tax for the Owner-Manager 16:2 (April 2016), comments on Green v R, 2016 TCC 10. The Tax Court chose not to follow a long-standing CRA position on tiered partnership losses. The CRA…
Property vs business income
From Philip Friedlan and Adam Friedlan, “When Does the Operation of a Rental Property Become a Business?” Tax for the Owner-Manager 16:2 (April 2016): , which was decided under the informal procedure rules and has…
Crystallizing and estate planning
Is it always a good idea to take full advantage of the capital gain exemption (CGE) by crystallizing? Assume Ms X crystallizes her Opco shares, but Opco morphs into an investment holding company by the time of her death. In…
Estates vs Trusts
The following article appeared in the most recent edition of The Hamilton Law Association Journal.
What is the difference between an estate and a trust? And why does it matter for tax purposes?
Audits
The federal government, stung perhaps by the charge that it goes after little fish (who can’t defend themselves) rather than the big fish (who can afford high-priced talent), has announced a significant expansion of the CRA’s audit capabilities for “suspected…
File Under “Annoying”
You can file the following under “Annoying”: a non-resident that voluntarily registers for GST will also be assigned a corporate income tax account automatically. The non-resident must then go to the trouble of having the account cancelled after proving to…
Life insurance changes
Grant Thornton’s Tax Release entitled “New rules for life insurance” does a good job of using English to explain some proposed changes to the Income Tax Act (Canada) and the Income Tax Regulations that will affect insurance policyholders. The Release…
Panama
From a CRA press release issued two days ago on the Panama papers: The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) is committed to combating the abusive use of offshore jurisdictions and protecting the integrity of the Canadian tax system. The CRA continues…