Category: Personal Tax

House flipping: refresher and practical advice – Part 1: income tax

Published by Tyler Berg

According to data available on its website, the Canada Revenue Agency (the “CRA”) completed approximately 12,000 “real estate” audits in British Columbia for both income tax and goods and services tax/harmonized sales tax (“GST/HST”) between April 2015 and March…

Tax-free savings accounts not always tax-free

Published by David Davies & Alexander Demner & Kyle Spampinato

In Ahamed v. The King (“Ahamed”), the Tax Court of Canada held that a tax-free savings account (“TFSA”), despite its moniker, is capable of carrying on a business of trading securities and any income earned from that business is fully…

First filings coming up for new housing taxes in Toronto and Ottawa

Published by Noah Sarna & Gloria Wang & Sarah Faber

Vacant housing taxes came into effect in Toronto and Ottawa for 2022, meaning that homeowners will have to file their first occupancy status declaration by February 2023 (for Toronto) and March 2023 (for Ottawa). Toronto’s portal is now open for…

EU Court of Justice invalidates mandatory reporting obligation imposed on lawyers under DAC6 similar to Canada’s proposed “notifiable transaction” regime

Published by Alexander Demner

The Court of Justice for the European Union (CJEU) recently invalidated a provision derived from the EU Directive informally known as DAC6 which requires lawyers to report their involvement in certain cross-border tax-planning arrangements to third parties. The provisions analyzed…

Issues arising on the conversion of real property from capital to inventory (or vice versa)

Published by Vivian Esper

When a real property held by a taxpayer as a rental property becomes the taxpayer’s residence (or vice versa), the “change-in-use” rules in section 45 and subsection 13(7) of the Income Tax Act (the “ITA”) are triggered. Subsection 45(1) provides…

A Critical Analysis of the Principal Income Tax Measures from Federal Budget 2022 (and Subsequent Legislative Proposals)

Published by Thorsteinssons LLP

Authors: Gloria Wang, Sarah Faber, and Alexander Demner

Budget 2022: A Plan to Grow Our Economy and Make Life More Affordable (“Budget 2022”) was tabled by the Federal Government on April 7, 2022 (“Budget Day”). The government…

Boguski – Crown unsuccessful in obtaining section 174 order to bind unrelated taxpayers in substantially similar transactions

Published by Gloria Wang

In Canada (National Revenue) v. Boguski, 2021 FCA 118 affirming 2018 TCC 236, the Federal Court of Appeal (the “FCA”) affirmed the decision of the Tax Court of Canada (the “Tax Court”)  to dismiss the Minister’s application for an…

Bill C-208 – Department of Finance confirms ITA amendments are in force and modifies its intended approach

Published by Alexander Demner & Alvin Lun

On June 29, 2021, Bill C-208 received Royal Assent. As previously discussed, that Bill amended the federal Income Tax Act (the “Act”) with the intention of facilitating intergenerational business transfers. The amendments sought to accomplish those means by, in…

Leonard – Tax Court finds that distressed-debt transaction was an adventure or concern in the nature of trade

Published by Chris Canning

The Tax Court’s decision in Leonard v. The Queen, 2021 TCC 33, analyzed the oft-discussed legal concept of “an adventure or concern in the nature of trade”, which the courts use to distinguish between transactions of a business nature…