In Marchan v. The Queen, 2008 TCC 158, the taxpayer received stock options from the U.S. parent of the Canadian subsidiary for which he worked in Canada. He exercised the options and sold the underlying securities, but the brokers handling the transactions withheld amounts from his proceeds, presumably on account of U.S. taxes. The taxpayer tried to claim a foreign tax credit.
Withholding Tax Issues
In Sentinel Hill No. 29 Limited Partnership v. Canada (Attorney General), 2008 ONCA 132, the Ontario Court of Appeal held that the Superior Court is not the place to resolve disputes involving assessments under the Income Tax Act (Canada) (the “Act”). That much is not surprising: in general, non-tax courts run as fast as they can from tax disputes, given the chance. The case illustrates, however, a nasty gotcha in international taxation that any practitioner who does cross border work should watch out for.
News releases
The CRA issued a couple of news releases yesterday. One of them warned about RSP “scams”, and the other announced that the CRA had issued a notice of suspension to ‘International Charity Association Network.’ The Department of Finance announced today…
U.S. Treaty amended
Finance just announced that “Canada’s New Government Sign[ed] Protocol to the Canada-U.S Tax Treaty for the Benefit of Canadians”. The news release summarizes the changes implemented as follows:
LLCs
Last week’s CCH Tax Topics has an interesting article on limited liability companies (LLCs) in light of the B.C. Supreme Court’s decision in Boliden Westmin Ltd. et al. v. The Queen, 2007 BCSC 351.