Articles 2022

Brent Kern applied the watershed decision of the Federal Court of Appeal in R. v. Sommerer. The traditional positions of the parties were reversed, with the Minister of National Revenue arguing that subsection 75(2) of the Income Tax Act did not apply to the Appellant, and the Appellant argued that it did apply.

The CRA recently introduced its Offshore Tax Informant Program (OTIP), which aims at protecting against international tax avoidance/evasion. Unfortunately, uncertainties stemming from the CRA’s guidance documents leave open a number of important questions about the new program.

The Supreme Court's recent decision in AES/Riopel makes clear that a remedy similar to common law rectification is available in Quebec. Although the case focuses on the civil law, it also provides both comfort and a list of caveats for taxpayers in the common law provinces.

The Federal Court of Appeal recently released reasons for this case. The detailed judgment reviews the instances in which a taxpayer may bring an application for judicial review of CRA actions before the Federal Court.

The recent decision in Piersanti v. The Queen offers an important lesson for both tax professionals and criminal defence counsel: taxpayers who do not challenge the admissibility of evidence risk having that evidence used against them in subsequent civil tax proceedings.

A summary of the Tax Court Chief Justice's address to the attendees of the 2013 Canadian Tax Foundation national conference.