At the STEP Canada 2023 Round Table, in answer to question 3, the CRA stated that a trust settled with a gold or silver bar, or a collectible coin, cannot satisfy the exception in paragraph 150(1.2)(b) of the Income Tax…
Forgotten capital losses
At the STEP Canada 2023 Round Table, in question 2, the CRA addressed a hypothetical question about the executors of an estate finding evidence of a capital loss realized years before that was not claimed. The CRA agreed that the…
Notifiable transactions list
The CRA has posted the list of notifiable transactions that have been designated by the Minister of National Revenue effective today. In the email I received notifying me of the notifiable transactions list, the CRA wrote “The list of transactions…
Dividends paid to beneficiaryco, again
In Vefghi Holding Corp. v R, 2023 TCC 135, the court provided the following answers to a Rule 58 Question: Where a trust designates a portion of a taxable dividend (the “Amount”) received on a share of the capital stock…
Reviewing your tax return
The court upheld gross negligence penalties in Fransen v R, 2023 TCC 107, a Fiscal Arbitrators case, because the taxpayer had been wilfully blind (the test for which is discussed at paras 9ff) and because he had not bothered to…
Fair market value is a fact
In R v Preston, 2023 FCA 178, rev’g 2021 TCC 79, the court (per Monaghan JA) held that fair market value was a fact that could be pleaded by the Crown as an assumption.
GAAR changes bad
Subsection 245(3) will be amended so that a transaction will be an “avoidance transaction” if one of its main purposes is to obtain a tax benefit. Many more transactions will be avoidance transactions because tax considerations always play a major…
Challenging the underlying assessment
Yesterday, Amit Ummat gave an excellent short presentation about director liability under the Income Tax Act and Excise Tax Act at the HLA’s 16th Corporate-Commercial seminar. He referred to Duque v R, 2020 FCA 73, in which Webb JA said…
STEP submissions re AMT
STEP has made some submissions (pdf) to Finance about the new AMT rules in the August 4 draft legislation as they apply to trusts. Because most trusts will not be entitled to claim the basic exemption for AMT purposes, they…
No accountant privilege
In Gaudreau c R, 2023 CCI 115, the Court was willing to consider the argument that an accountant’s planning memorandum need not be produced on discovery because it was not relevant. After duly considering the matter, the Court concluded the…