Mark Hunter pointed out to me that paragraph 20(1)(j) of the Income Tax Act (Canada) doesn’t work well as an income-averaging tool if used in circumstances where the person taking the loan can’t repay it any time soon or will do so in a year without much income.
Audit process
The next issue of the Hamilton Law Association Journal will contain an article I’ve written on the audit process and a taxpayer’s liability under the Income Tax Act.
Checklists
Some time ago, I read The Checklist Manifesto, and since then I’ve implemented a number of checklists in my practice. I’d like to do more of them because I find them so useful. The trick of course, is to find…
More rectification cases
Blaine Cameron at KPMG, Hamilton, was kind enough to point me in the direction of two recent rectification decisions.
Learned Hand on Tax
The eminent jurist Learned Hand on the 1939 Internal Revenue Code: In my own case the words of such an act as the income tax, for example, merely dance before my eyes in a meaningless procession: cross-reference to cross-reference, exception…
Labow appeal dismissed
The Federal Court of Appeal has dismissed the taxpayer’s appeal in Labow v R, 2011 FCA 305. The taxpayer had paid amounts to an offshore health and welfare trust for his wife`s benefit (she was an employee in his surgical…
Quotes
I’ve been quoted a couple of times recently in tax-related stories in The Lawyers Weekly, most recently in a story on Johnson v R, 2011 TCC 540, which I wrote about here.
Freeze share values
Bryan Walters has drawn my attention to an interesting CRA technical interpretation (2011-0404641C6 or CCH Window ¶10,832) in which the CRA states that the provisions of a shareholder agreement might reduce the value of freeze shares that otherwise have the “right” attributes for the purposes of a freeze (see “Freeze Shares“).
Donation tax shelter class action
For an article on donation tax shelter class actions, click here.
The Arnold Report
Brian Arnold maintains a blog of sorts over at the CTF website. I say “of sorts” not to denigrate what he does with his posts—which are always informative and often quite funny—but to point out that when you number your…