It’s not every lawyer who can plausibly quote Henry IV, Part 1, in an article on tax matters, but Neal Armstrong pulls it off in a recent post about MNR v Sifto Canada Corp, 2014 FCA 140. In Sifto, Sharlow…
Shares issued for a note
Neil Armstrong, in a recent News of Note article, summarizes an article by Marshall Haughey (“Issuing Shares for a Promissory Note,” 24 Can. Current Tax, May 2014, p. 85), in which the author concludes that shares supposedly issued for a…
A Warning from the Court
The following article on the tax preparer penalties appeared in a recent issue of the HLA Journal.
The “third-party civil penalties” in the Income Tax Act (the “Act”) have been with us for some time now. When they were first introduced, they caused some consternation because they made tax advisers potentially liable with their clients for penalties for misstatements on tax returns. In my experience, these penalties have had the effect Finance was looking for when it introduced the penalties: most of the accountants with whom I deal are quite cautious when it comes to circumstances that might involve the application of the penalties. Perhaps they would be cautious anyway, but it is a rare discussion about a questionable or aggressive filing position for which a client is advocating where the accountant does not mention these penalties.
Guilty pleas and the Tax Court
James Rhodes, in a recent post on the Canadian Tax Professionals group on LinkedIn, drew our attention to McIntrye v R, 2014 TCC 111, in which Justice Diane Campbell, among other things, found that the CRA was not bound by an agreed statement of facts (ASF) arrived at as part of a plea bargain and that the CRA, in assessing the taxpayers, was not required to make assumptions that were consistent with the ASF.
Housing Loans
Owner-managers and their advisers need to be wary of housing loans made to a private corporation’s controlling shareholder. In Mast v R, 2013 TCC 309, the Tax Court concluded that the exception to subsection 15(2) of the Income Tax Act…
Some recent rectification cases
Thanks to Craig Burley for pointing me to a recent newsletter article on McLean v McLean, 2013 ONCA 788. In the same vein, see also Neal Armstrong’s comment on Re: Pallen Trust, 2014 BCSC 305.
Trusts in family law
Thanks to Joel Campagna at Manulife Financial for drawing my attention to Spencer v Riesberry, 2012 ONCA 418, in which the Court of Appeal held that a wife did not have an “interest” in a family home for the purposes of the Family Law Act (Ontario) because the home was held in a trust settled by the wife’s mother of which the wife was merely a contingent beneficiary and co-trustee.
Berg Overturned
The Federal Court of Appeal, at 2014 FCA 25, has overturned the Tax Court decision in Berg v R, 2012 TCC 406, which I wrote about here.
Kossow appeal dismissed
Apparently, the Federal Court of Appeal has dismissed the taxpayer’s appeal of Kossow v R, 2012 TCC 325. I say “apparently” because the decision was reportedly posted to the Federal Court of Appeal’s website and then taken down rather quickly.
Klundert loses again … and again
It appears Mr Klundert, about whom I wrote previously here, is not having any further luck in his court battles. The CRA reassessed him for unpaid taxes in respect of income he failed to declare and for which he was convicted on evasion charges. His appeal of the related civil reassessments to the Tax Court (Klundert v R, 2013 TCC 208) was dismissed recently because, among other things, the Court found the appeal to be an abuse of process.