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…
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…
Bousfield v. The King, 2022 TCC 169, is a recent decision of the Tax Court of Canada that addresses “alternative assessment techniques”. The decision serves as a helpful guide to both the legal bases for such techniques and the…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…