In 2014-0523041C6, the CRA was asked whether a US Limited Liability Limited Partnership (LLLP) should be treated a foreign partnership, a foreign corporation, or some other type of arrangement (for Canadian tax purposes). The CRA applies a two-step process…
In C.A.E. Inc. v. Canada, 2013 FCA 92, the Federal Court of Appeal (FCA) said that the change-in-use rules in s. 13(7) and s. 45(1) should apply when property, initially held as inventory, begins to be used as depreciable property…
In McLarty v. The Queen, 2014 TCC 30, the Crown took another run at a tax-structured acquisition of seismic data, having previously lost at the Supreme Court of Canada in respect of a reassessment of the same taxpayer for…
The recent decision of Gervais c. La Reine (2014 CCI 119; available only in French) gave the TCC an opportunity to review a common planning technique that spouses use to multiply the use of their lifetime capital gains exemption (CGE)…
Murphy’s Law is, as everyone knows, the proposition that “Anything that can possibly go wrong, does.” There are many variants of this. Among tax practitioners, a well known one is the proposition “There is no equity in a tax statute.”…
In Henco Industries Limited v. The Queen, 2014 TCC 192, a company carried on the business of developing land for sale in Caledonia, Ontario. In 2006, certain members of local Aboriginal groups occupied the area, which made continuation of…
In Tsilhqot’in Nation v. British Columbia, 2014 SCC 44, the Supreme Court of Canada reaffirmed that the doctrine of terra nullius – no one owned the land prior to European assertion of sovereignty – never applied in Canada: the…
When a Canadian company (Canco) receives a pre-acquisition surplus dividend (Pre-Acq Dividend) from a foreign affiliate (FA), s. 92(2) reduces Canco’s tax basis (ACB) in the FA shares. However, this ACB adjustment does not apply if Canco holds FA through…
In the recent Tax Court case of Trudy Tallon v. the Queen, Woods, J. was asked to rule on travel and transportation medical expenses tax credits claimed under paragraphs 118.2(2)(g) and (h) by the taxpayer in her 2009 taxation year. …
On October 23, 2013, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and European Commission President José Manual Barroso signed an agreement-in-principle relating to the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (“CETA”). This agreement provides for the removal of nearly all customs duties and tariffs…