Late-filed

Here’s a good reason to file an election on time: if you don’t, and one of the parties to the election disappears (dies or is dissolved, for example), the CRA will likely take the position that a late-filed election isn’t possible because the parties to it can’t make the election anymore.

Don’t assume …

In the Tax Court of Canada, the onus is on the taxpayer to prove the facts on which he or she relies in appealing from a reassessment. Usually, the taxpayer is the party who must “carry the ball”. That doesn’t mean, however, that the government can sit back and do nothing, at least according to Justice Webb in Brewster v R, 2012 TCC 187.

“Gambling with other people’s money”

In Deakin v R, 2012 TCC 270, the taxpayers had been assessed as directors for the failure of a corporation to remit income tax and GST source deductions. It appears that the taxpayers chose to have the corporation use what it had withheld to keep its business afloat rather than remit the money as required by the Income Tax Act (Canada) and the Excise Tax Act (Canada) (¶ 8).