Paragraph 248(7)(a) of the Income Tax Act (Canada) deems a return or other document mailed by first class mail to be received by the addressee on the date it is mailed. What happens if you send a document to the CRA by mail and it says it didn’t get it? The answer seems to be that you or your accountant had better have a standard procedure for mailing documents about which you can give evidence to convince the CRA or a court on a balance of probabilities that the document was mailed even if the CRA did not get it.
Politics and taxes
Sometimes clients with a tax problem will ask whether it would help to have an MP or MPP write to the CRA or the Department of Justice on their behalf. In my experience, MPs and MPPs will almost always refuse, more or less politely, to get involved. It appears that John Duncan agreed to “help out”. He has now resigned from Cabinet as a result.
More ‘Fun’ With Section 160
I’ve written a number of blog posts and articles on the “long arm” of section 160 of the Income Tax Act (Canada), and I’ve mentioned that liability under section 160 does not depend on whether the transferor or transferee know of a liability of the transferor in respect of which the section could apply.
Technicalities
In Oloya v R, 2011 TCC 308, the taxpayer transferred non-cash property to a charity, and the Court was willing to accept that it might have been transferred by way of a gift. The charity, however, issued a receipt that…
Point in time due diligence
A director of a corporation that fails to remit source deductions might be duly diligent to a point in time, and therefore not liable for the failure to that time, but not diligent after that time, and therefore liable for…
Coming soon to a taxpayer near you
In “Soliciting VDs?“, I wrote about the CRA’s “letter campaign”, which is supposed to “to inform taxpayers about their tax obligations and to encourage them to correct any inaccuracies in their past income tax and benefit returns.” The campaign continues,…
Income averaging?
Mark Hunter pointed out to me that paragraph 20(1)(j) of the Income Tax Act (Canada) doesn’t work well as an income-averaging tool if used in circumstances where the person taking the loan can’t repay it any time soon or will do so in a year without much income.
Donation tax shelter case
Hamilton’s own Mr Justice Randall Bocock goes head-to-head with Maréchaux in Berg v R, 2012 TCC 406.
Estate planning and personal use real property
I just listened to a helpful presentation on estate planning for personal use real property by Robin MacKnight at the Law Society’s seminar on “Taxation Issues in Real Estate Transactions“.
Subsection 83(2.1) applied
In Groupe Honco inc. c R, 2012 CCI 305, the Tax Court applied the anti-avoidance rule in subsection 83(2.1) to a dividend purported to be paid from the capital dividend account of a corporation taken over by another so that…