In Canada v. BCS Group Business Services Inc., 2020 FCA 205, the Court found that a corporation in a general procedure appeal must be represented by a lawyer. For the reasons that follow, I have concluded that the legislator…
Disputes involving losses
Summary of Michael H. Lubetsky “Income Tax Disputes Involving Loss Years: Pitfalls, Foibles, and Possible Reforms” (2019) 67:3 Canadian Tax Journal 499-531. This article won an award from the Canadian Tax Foundation as the best article it published in 2019.…
Burden of proof
One sometimes hears that a taxpayer’s task in a Tax Court appeal is to “demolish” the assumptions of the CRA (as listed in the Crown’s Reply) by proving them wrong on a balance of probabilities. Webb JA, in Morrison v.…
The Tax Court and the implied undertaking rule
In Silver Wheaton Corp. v R, 2019 TCC 170, the Court held that the implied undertaking rule prevented third parties from obtaining the production of documents and information produced by the taxpayer in a Tax Court appeal. Bhuvana Sankaranarayanan, “Third…
Interest payable
Amit Ummat has written a good article about Glatt v Canada (National Revenue), 2019 FC 738. The taxpayer was assessed a preparer penalty. To reduce risk, the taxpayer paid the assessed amount, which was later reversed, but without interest on…
Burden of proof
Owen J, in Morrison v R, 2018 TCC 220, writes the following about the burden of proof relating to the Minister’s assumptions: The Federal Court of Appeal makes two important points in these decisions [Transocean Offshore Ltd. v R,…
Informal procedure appeals
Craig Burley has written a helpful article about a technicality relating to the $25,000 limit for informal procedure appeals to the Tax Court of Canada. He refers to Maier v R, 1994 CarswellNat 3242, T.C.J. No. 1260 (TCC), in…
Extension of time
A taxpayer fails to meet the 90-day deadline for filing an appeal to the Tax Court apparently because he was badly advised by a professional about procedural matters. Should the Court grant his application to late-file the appeal? The Federal Court of Appeal said ‘yes’ in Bygrave v R, 2017 FCA 124.
What is a nil assessment?
In Shreedhar v R, 2016 TCC 254, the Crown brought a motion to strike an informal procedure appeal. The Crown claimed that the taxpayer was attempting to appeal from a nil assessment. The Court disagreed because, while the assessment had…
The Shadow of the Torturer
Mr Douglas McCarthy participated in the Fiscal Arbitrators fiasco. His lawyer, as part of some pre-trial skirmishing, tried to argue, among other things, that Mr McCarthy shouldn’t have to answer questions on examinations-for-discovery because the discovery process amounts to torture.…