On June 28, 2019, the Ontario Court of Appeal released its decision on the Ontario government’s reference regarding the constitutionality of the federal carbon pricing regime. Like the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal ruled in May, the majority of the…
On May 3, 2019, the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal released its decision in the Saskatchewan government’s reference asking it if the federal “carbon tax” is unconstitutional. The Court held that the federal legislation was validly enacted under the
The recent Federal Court decision in Canada (National Revenue) v. Hydro-Québec, 2018 FC 622 made a strong statement against an interpretation of the CRA’s powers that would allow virtually unlimited invasions of taxpayer privacy. The decision considered the scope of…
The Tax Court of Canada last week released a landmark decision on the GST/HST status of certain commonplace transaction processing services, namely VISA’s payment platform offering to financial institutions.
In Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce v Her Majesty the Queen,…
The latest chapter in the story of the “half-loaf plan” has been penned by the Federal Court of Appeal in Gervais v. the Queen, 2018 FCA 3. The case dealt with a plan by which the taxpayer, Mr. Gervais,…
The Federal Court of Appeal recently released its decision in Canada (National Revenue) v. ConocoPhillips Canada Resources Corp., 2017 FCA 243. The background for the case is as follows: ConocoPhillips had been issued a reassessment of its 2000 taxation…
The Tax Court of Canada recently decided a new case under the general anti-avoidance rule (“GAAR”) in section 245 of the Income Tax Act. In Birchcliff Energy Ltd. v. The Queen, the Court held that the GAAR applied to restrict…
On October 13, 2017, the Federal Court of Appeal released its decision in Univar Holdco Canada ULC. v. H.M.Q. 2017 FCA 207 (“Univar”), overturning the trial decision at the Tax Court of Canada (2016 TCC 159). The judgment contained…
Under the provisions of the Income Tax Act (the “ITA”), the CRA is authorized to inspect a taxpayer’s books and records and to require taxpayers to provide information and documents in the course of an income tax audit. However, the…
Taxpayers regularly argue that an administrative policy adopted by the Canada Revenue Agency (the “CRA”) constitutes an incorrect interpretation of the law that courts should reject. Courts sometimes side with these taxpayers, and choose not to follow the CRA’s administrative…