Articles 2024

After several years of advocacy on the part of the OBA, the Law Society of Ontario has introduced a Certified Specialist Program for Taxation Law. Read more about the announcement of this prestigious new Certified Specialist Program, the four potential routes to certification for tax lawyers, and where to find more information on becoming a Certified Specialist in Taxation Law.

This article summarizes the proposed changes to the employee stock option rules, introduced in Budget 2019. It will outline the current legislative scheme in the Income Tax Act (the “Act”), discuss the proposed changes including an example to demonstrate the application of the proposals, and recap the CBA/CPA Canada Joint Committee on Taxation’s related submissions.

In a recent view of the CRA (2019-0806761I7), the CRA considered whether a late-filed “bump” designation pursuant to paragraph 88(1)(d) of the Income Tax Act (Canada) on a vertical amalgamation could be made outside the normal reassessment period in relation to a transfer pricing adjustment that was made during the six- or seven-year extended reassessment period. The CRA’s comments provide welcome guidance.

Highlights from the September 17, 2019 Brown Bag Lunch, including discussions of multiple wills, best practices when a parent wishes to disinherit a child, assessing capacity via Skype, and many other issues relevant to an estates and trust practice.

Updates on the Financial Services Regulatory Authority, Ontario government draft regulations on electronic communications, Income Tax Act changes, CRA publications, and recent decisions from Ontario, including the Nortel decision from the Financial Services Tribunal.

Following are this week’s summaries of the civil decisions of the Court of Appeal for Ontario. Topics covered this week include family law, insurance coverage, enforcing settlements, adding parties after a limitation period expires, and obtaining dispensation from some of the requirements of perfecting an appeal.

In a landmark decision (First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada et al. v. Attorney General of Canada (Representing the Minister of Indigenous and Norther Affairs Canada et al.), 2019 CHRT 39, released on September 6, 2019, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ordered the federal government to pay $40,000 for every First Nations child unnecessarily removed from family members on reserve and in the Yukon on or after January 1st, 2006.

On September 10, 2019, two members of the OBA's Young Lawyers' Division Executive attended the Momentum Summit on gender equality and equity. The event was a capstone on the OBA’s 2018-2019 initiatives to advance gender equality in the legal profession. In case you missed it, this article has 7 takeaways from the summit's sessions.