Articles 2019

The GST/HST holding company rules have long been hotly contested between the CRA and GST/HST registrants. The changes proposed by the Department of Finance may help to provide some clarity to this area, however, the new property test for parent corporations will likely limit the application of these previously broad rules.

This paper surveys a host of potential issues that can arise when a taxpayer disposes of their principal residence following the 2016 amendments to the Income Tax Act. Starting with an overview of the current legislative rules, the paper then goes on to highlight problems including having a non-resident owner, Trusts and principal properties, and dual Canadian-US citizens selling their principal residence in Canada.

This article explores the implication of growing Canadian household debt on estates in the context of the estate administration tax.

When a matter is decided at Tax Court, the winner may be entitled to costs. Recent cases award high costs that better reflect the actual expenses in conducting an appeal, in contrast to the low costs recommended under the Tariff in the Tax Court of Canada Rules.

In Lapierre v The Queen, the Tax Court of Canada considered the Canadian federal income tax treatment of an international civilian consultant's income from employment, concluding that the taxpayer was not eligible for particular deductions available to certain Canadian Armed Forces personnel who perform similar duties.

The author discusses two recent Tax Court of Canada cases considering the application of the general anti-avoidance rule, from which the taxpayers emerged victorious for various reasons.

One of the more interesting tax developments of 2018 was surely the jurisprudence considering whether a taxpayer has realized a tax benefit, one of three requirements for the application of the general anti-avoidance rule. The existence of a tax benefit had only infrequently been disputed by taxpayers, until several of taxpayers disputed it in 2018.

A recent judgement of the Federal Court highlights the need for taxpayers to consider solicitor-client privilege carefully when creating documents that record uncertain tax positions, and limits the applicability of BP Canada, which held that the Minister of National Revenue was not entitled to have access to Tax Accrual Working Papers without restriction.

In this article, the authors discuss the proposed measures introduced in the 2018 Fall Economic Statement that will allow businesses to accelerate the tax depreciation of certain capital investments.

The courts continue to delineate the scope and operation of rectification following the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in Canada (Attorney General) v. Fairmont Hotels Inc., which significantly curtailed the availability of the remedy. This article discusses a recent British Columbia Supreme Court decision in which the Court granted an order to rectify a directors’ resolution declaring a capital dividend, the amount of which had been erroneously inflated.