Yesterday, Amit Ummat gave an excellent short presentation about director liability under the Income Tax Act and Excise Tax Act at the HLA’s 16th Corporate-Commercial seminar. He referred to Duque v R, 2020 FCA 73, in which Webb JA said…
STEP submissions re AMT
STEP has made some submissions (pdf) to Finance about the new AMT rules in the August 4 draft legislation as they apply to trusts. Because most trusts will not be entitled to claim the basic exemption for AMT purposes, they…
No accountant privilege
In Gaudreau c R, 2023 CCI 115, the Court was willing to consider the argument that an accountant’s planning memorandum need not be produced on discovery because it was not relevant. After duly considering the matter, the Court concluded the…
Resurrection
In Canada (Attorney General) v 18335898 Alberta Ltd (Whitecap Energy Inc), 2023 ABKB 357, the taxpayer wound-up and dissolved in 2020. All of its assets were transferred to its parent. The CRA audited the taxpayer’s 2017 and 2018 taxation years.…
Form of objection
I have written before about the Tax Court’s tendency to give a liberal interpretation to what constitutes a “notice of objection”. I am a little surprised, then, that the CRA made an application to quash the appeal of the taxpayers…
T2057 amended
The CRA has amended the T2057 to make several significant changes. The form must now be accompanied by a calculation of the tax cost of the subject property, and the form must indicate whether an “independent assessment” of fair market…
Reportable Transactions and Adviser Fees
Last year, the Department of Finance proposed amendments to section 237.3 of the Income Tax Act (Canada) (the “Act”) that reduced to one the number of “hallmarks” that would trigger reporting on an avoidance transaction. In response, the Joint Committee…
VDP Woes
Christen v. Canada (Revenue Agency), 2021 FC 1440, aff’d 2023 CAF 101, is of interest on a number of levels, perhaps especially for lawyers who practice administrative law. The case also yields some interesting insight into the CRA’s approach to…
Penalties for false statements
The Court confirmed the imposition of gross negligence penalties in O’Hagan v R, 2023 TCC 52 (informal procedure) (a Fiscal Arbitrators case), after finding that the taxpayer had been “willfully blind” (among other things). The taxpayer submitted a return for…
Books and records
It bears repeating: you must maintain books a records as long as necessary to support any claim you wish to make for a deduction or loss under the Income Tax Act (Canada) (the “Act”), especially if you are prosecuting an…