In opera circles, they say the performance isn’t over until the fat lady sings. When she does rev up for the final aria, we know the show is coming to a close. I was reminded of this in an odd…
When a taxpayer transfers appreciated property to a corporation under the rollover provisions of section 85 of the Act, an election form (T2057) is filed in which the parties set out the fair market value of the property and an…
When the CRA has made an assessment of tax and the taxpayer has started an appeal in the Tax Court, the taxpayer and the CRA can agree to settle the appeal without proceeding with an actual trial in court. This…
Many tax planning transactions fall within the definition of “avoidance transaction” in subsection 245(3) of the Income Tax Act and as such are subject to review under the general anti-avoidance rule (GAAR). Equally, many of the transactions that are reviewed…
The following article, written by James Murdoch, was first published by STEP Canada in the May 2012 edition of STEP INSIDE, the quarterly publication of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (Canada):
On April 12, 2012 the Supreme Court…
A wise man once said that when your boat has capsized in a pond full of alligators, it’s hard to remember that the reason you’re there in the first place is to drain the swamp. A recent letter to the…
Those of us who work in Toronto and enjoy the privilege of driving to work here need no reminders about the hazards of driving anywhere these days. With the post winter construction season now in full swing here, parts of…
Two items crossed my desk at about the same time last week and I found the juxtaposition of them provocative. The first is the report of the Tax Court’s decision in Zsebok, 2012 TCC 99; the other is CRA technical…
It seemed to me today as I read another Tax Court decision on penalties that there have been a lot of them this year. A quick search of one of the case law data bases for “penalty” and “due diligence”…
A growing number of developed countries are looking for ways to beef up their anti-avoidance rules. According to a recent note in Tax Notes International (April 23, 2012), the Italian government proposes to introduce a general definition of abuse of…