Apparently, the Department of Finance and the CRA believe that you can have too much fairness in the tax system. In the 2004 budget, Finance introduced a ten-year limitation period for fairness applications. It appears that the CRA is now adopting a particularly strict interpretation of the rule to deny relief to taxpayers even where the events that form the basis for the fairness request occurred within the limitation period.
CRA Alert Service
The CRA has launched an “alert service” to provide information on tax shelters, “scams” and other areas of interest. Will the service make it easier for us to provide advice to our clients?
Tax Cases of Interest
On Thursday, November 3, I will be presenting at the CRA’s quarterly Tax Practitioner’s Consultation Group meeting at the Royal Botanical Gardens. In my presentation, I will discuss recent “Tax Cases of Interest” including the Supreme Court of Canada decisions…
Real Estate and Tax
Joe Monaco and I will do a presentation for the Realtors Association of Hamilton-Burlington tomorrow on real estate and tax. You can obtain a copy of our PowerPoint presentation here.
OBA Presentation on Charities
I will present at a seminar hosted by the Charity and Not-for-Profit section of the Ontario Bar Association in Toronto on Wednesday, October 26. I will cover topics addressed in my article on the new split-receipt rules ((2004) 18(4) The…
Supreme Court Releases GAAR Decisions
The Supreme Court of Canada, in Canada Trustco Mortgage Co. v. The Queen, 2005 SCC 54 and Mathew v. The Queen, 2005 SCC 55, released its first judgments on the general anti-avoidance rule yesterday. The Court unanimously dismissed the Crown’s…
More on CRA Demands for Information
Redeemer Foundation v. M.N.R., 2005 FC 1361, represents an interesting coda to my article on CRA demands for third-party information. In this decision, the Federal Court quashed reassessments that were based on information obtained pursuant to an improper demand for third-party information.
Professional Corporations
In its 2005 budget, the Ontario government announced that it would amend the legislation governing professional corporations to permit corporations controlled by doctors to issue shares to family members (see “Paper C: Details of Revenue Measures” under the heading “Professional…
Fraud and Income Tax
A rogue convinces you to “invest” in a “business” and you lose the money you invest because the business really consists of stealing your money. Will you be entitled to a deduction in respect of the money you have lost? The Federal Court of Appeal, in Hammill v. The Queen, 2005 FCA 252, said no.
A Nasty Surprise for Charities
On July 18, 2005, the Department of Finance released over 300 pages of draft legislation amending the Income Tax Act (Canada) (the “Act”). For the most part, the legislation merely reintroduces previously-announced proposals, but Finance slipped in a new measure that imposes new burdens on charities. If the proposal is enacted, a charity that issues a receipt with an eligible amount in excess of $5,000 will be required first to make “reasonable inquiry” about whether the amount should be reduced under any one of a number of complex provisions of the Act relating to gifts.