From H.M. Dolson, “What To Expect in Tax Adjudication”, Canadian Tax Highlights 23:4 (April 2015): As a whole, a general procedure taxpayer represented by counsel achieved a meaningful victory in 38.5 percent of the published TCC decisions and…
Burden of proof and gross negligence
In Brown v R, 2014 FCA 301, Webb JA had no trouble dismissing the taxpayer’s claim that the Income Tax Act (Canada) was void for uncertainty because, for example, it did not provide an adequate definition of “person”. The Court,…
Loss Carrybacks and Reassessments
Alex Klyguine reminds us that, if the CRA reassesses a year and the taxpayer wishes to dispute the reassessment, the taxpayer must be cautious about applying losses of other years to reduce the taxable income of the reassessed year. If…
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.
Illegally obtained evidence
Can the CRA use evidence it has obtained (arguably) illegally using its civil audit powers in the course of a criminal investigation in reassessing a taxpayer for civil purposes? I would have thought that the answer was ‘yes’, and the…
Politics and taxes
Sometimes clients with a tax problem will ask whether it would help to have an MP or MPP write to the CRA or the Department of Justice on their behalf. In my experience, MPs and MPPs will almost always refuse, more or less politely, to get involved. It appears that John Duncan agreed to “help out”. He has now resigned from Cabinet as a result.
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.
Settlement
Taylor v R, 2012 FCA 148, is an interesting case on the enforceability of a settlement or whether the settlement prevented the taxpayer from appealing the reassessments in question to the Tax Court.
Access to information
PWC has just published a good Tax Memo (2012-27) on taxpayer access to audit and appeals reports and other documents generated by the CRA in the course of issuing a reassessment. I found helpful the references to P-148 and CRA technical interpretation 2011-0403751C6 regarding what the CRA should provide without the taxpayer having to make an access request.
Lawyers! Again.
I wrote about whether an officer or director of a corporation could represent it in a Tax Court appeal in a post I wrote about White Star Copper Mines Limited v R, 2007 TCC 669. A more recent decision appears to deviate from the approach taken in White Star.