The CRA’s Appeals branch, according to P148 (“Resolving Your Dispute: Objection and Appeal Rights Under the Income Tax Act”), exists “to resolve disputes arising from decisions made under legislation administered by the [CRA] by conducting fair and impartial reviews.” In fact, Appeals sometimes ends up acting as if the objection process were a second chance to audit the taxpayer: sometimes officers of the branch appear to spend more time trying to repair deficiencies in the CRA’s case against the taxpayer than they do considering the taxpayer’s submissions. When this happens, is relief available to the taxpayer?
Beneficiaries gone wild!
As tax advisers, we regularly advise our clients to enter into various legal relationships in order to help them reduce the taxes they would otherwise incur. In providing such advice, however, we would do well to remind our clients that those legal relationships have more than just tax consequences. Rose v. Rose, 81 O.R. (3d) 349, 2006 CanLII 20856 (ON S.C.) could be the cautionary tale.
Stock dividends
Stock dividends or “dividends satisfied by stock” can be a useful tool for a tax practitioner, but do they create their own tax problems for shareholders of a corporation incorporated under the Business Corporations Act (Ontario) (the “OBCA”)?
Criminal Charges
It appears that over the last few years the Ontario Ministry of Finance has been getting tough with the directors of corporations who fail to file Ontario corporate tax returns. Failing to file such a return is a criminal offence,…
Learning in the Distinct Society
I returned to the office today after having been away to attend the CICA‘s Advanced Tax Issues for the Owner-Managed Business course in Mont Tremblant, Quebec. The course was intense—there is such a thing as too much discussion about income…
New draft legislation
Usually the Department of Finance waits until closer to Christmas to release draft legislation. Thus Finance wreaks its revenge on tax practitioners by forcing them to read its opaque, sometimes stupefying prose during the Christmas break. Christmas came early this…
Income trust roller coaster
You read it in the paper this morning. Now see the details of the Minister of Finance’s plan for income trusts here and hang on to your hats.
Tax shelters again
You know it must be the season because the CRA has issued another warning about investing in tax shelters.
Suing the CRA
Two courts of appeal have recently considered attempts to litigate personal income tax disputes outside the Tax Court of Canada. Smith et al v. Canada (Attorney General) et al, 2006 BCCA 237, and The Queen v. Roitman, 2006 FCA 266,…
“Archived” and “Cancelled” ITs
The CRA has been “archiving” certain of its Interpretation Bulletins and Information Circulars, which prompted one of our readers to ask “What does it mean when an IT or IC has been ‘archived’ or ‘cancelled'”? I wasn’t exactly sure myself, and so I wrote to the Income Tax Rulings Directorate in Ottawa to inquire further. The following is its response: