Articles 2020

The Tax Court of Canada confirms its willingness to apply the general anti-avoidance rule to surplus stripping transactions which circumvent the application of section 84.1. Benjamin Mann reviews the recent decision in 1245989 Alberta Ltd. v. The Queen.

Proposed amendments to the Excise Tax Act may have a number of implications for investment funds and their managers. Jamie Wilks and Jonathan Bright describe and explain the proposals, while discussing some potentially significant consequences for hedge funds, mutual funds, and similar investment vehicles.

On September 8, 2017, the Department of Finance re-released proposed changes to billed-based accounting for professionals for taxation years beginning after March 21, 2017. The article reviews the proposed amendments and transitional rules.

The Tax Court of Canada recently released a decision in MacDonald v. The Queen, that together with the Court’s decision in George Weston Limited v. The Queen establishes the limits to the spectrum of hedging arrangements. Alexandra Neacsu Monkhouse reviews the decision in MacDonald and discusses how it continues and clarifies the prior jurisprudence on derivatives.

On March 30, 2017 the Federal Court of Appeal placed a significant restriction on the CRA’s audit powers, ruling that the CRA could not compel the disclosure of tax accrual working papers that identified a taxpayer’s uncertain tax filing positions. Stephanie Dewey and Mark Tonkovich review the decision in BP Canada Energy Company (2017 FCA 61).

In December 2016, the newly-established Offshore Compliance Advisory Committee released its first report, setting out a series of recommendations for the future administration of the Voluntary Disclosures Program. Rachel Gold discusses the Committee's recommendations and their potential implications for taxpayers.

The Federal Court of Appeal confirms the CBSA committed an abuse of process in the administration of the Customs Act. John Bassindale reviews the decision in AG v. Bri-Chem Supply Ltd. et al. (2016 FCA 257).

This summer saw the first case in which a court articulated the test for determining whether an interest amount is reasonable for purposes of paragraph 20(1)(c) of the Income Tax Act (Canada) (“ITA”). Jenny Mboutsiadis reviews the decision of the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench in ENMAX PSA Corp. v. Alberta (2016 ABQB 334).

Over the course of the next 20 years, nearly 7 million Canadians will retire, a considerable portion with the benefit of a pension plan; some with defined benefit plans, others with annuities purchased with the funds they receive from a defined contribution plan. The sustainability of those plans, however, faces an uncertain future, as exemplified by the bankruptcy or insolvency proceedings concerning Indalex, Nortel and most recently, for the second time, U.S. Steel Canada (previously Stelco).

Two recent Supreme Court of Canada decisions, Canada v. Chambre des notaires du Québec, 2016 SCC 20, and Canada v. Thompson, 2016 SCC 21, confirm that a client's right to solicitor-client privilege applies prima facie to shield a lawyer's accounting records (including invoices and any other records disclosing facts about the client relationship) from disclosure to the Canada Revenue Agency.