Articles 2022

Aujourdʼhui
Aujourdʼhui

Expertise Employed and Employed Experts: Independent Expert Witnesses in Tax Disputes Post-White Burgess

  • 21 avril 2023
  • Brian M. Studniberg

Expert witnesses play an important, and often decisive, role in litigation. Tax disputes are no different, as experts regularly testify on matters such as those involving asset valuations, transfer pricing or scientific research and experimental development. It is a truism that the first obligation of the expert is to the court to which the expert is called to assist and not to the party calling the expert.

Student Forum, Droit fiscal

Beyond Single vs Multiple Supplies in GST/HST Context

  • 21 avril 2023
  • Shahrukh Khowaja

The tax status of a particular supply usually relies on its categorization within the bracket of supplies, either taxable, zero-rated or exempt, under the Excise Tax Act. In the case of transactions involving various similar elements, the fundamental issue becomes determining whether it is a single supply or a multiple supply. As transactions in the modern world consist of multiple layers, the distinction is crucial and, more often, complicated.

Student Forum, Droit fiscal

A Brief Overview of the New Toronto Vacant Home Tax 

  • 16 janvier 2023
  • Birute Luksenaite

Effective January 1, 2022, the City of Toronto has begun to levy an annual 1% property-value-based tax on vacant residential properties (the Vacant Home Tax or “VHT”). VHT was codified in the new Chapter 778 of Part 2 (General By-Laws) of the Municipal Code, which Part already contained, inter alia, the City’s property tax and land transfer tax provisions. 

Student Forum, Droit fiscal

Foreign Property Buyer Tax Traps: Taxable Trustees and Resulting Trusts

  • 05 janvier 2023
  • Milosz Zak, BDO Law LLP

Applicable to contractual obligations arising or assumed as of January 1, 2023, pursuant to the Federal Prohibition on the Purchase of Residential Property by Non-Canadians Act, (the “Federal foreign buyer ban”) non-Canadian citizens, non-permanent residents, and others deemed to be “non-Canadian” have been barred from purchasing residential property across Canada for two years.

Student Forum, Droit fiscal

It Doesn’t Have to be Issued by the Vendor: Tax Court Confirms Satisfactory Input Tax Credit Documentation

  • 16 octobre 2022
  • Randy Schwartz and Jesse Waslowski, McCarthy Tetrault LLP

Subsection 168(1) states that GST/HST tax is generally payable on the earlier of when the consideration for the supply is paid and when it becomes due, the latter of which generally falls on the invoice date. However, in CFI Funding Trust v. The Queen, the Tax Court of Canada held that an invoice issued by the supplier is not necessary to claim an input tax credit and to satisfy requirements of the Excise Tax Act (Canada) and the Input Tax Credit Information (GST/HST) Regulations.

Student Forum, Droit fiscal

Is there a Place for “Abuse of the Act Read as a Whole” in the GAAR Analysis

  • 16 octobre 2022
  • Julia (Zhuying) Zhuo

The general anti-avoidance rule in section 245 of the Income Tax Act is essentially an interpretive rule. In Canada Trustco, the Supreme Court adopted a single, unified approach to the misuse or abuse analysis, which rejected “abuse of the Act read as a whole” as a separate test. In the recent GAAR Consultation paper, the Finance expressed concern over the unified approach and considered codifying the “scheme” approach in Copthorne to give more weight to “abuse of the Act read as whole.”

Student Forum, Droit fiscal

Blockchain and Tax Law: Behind the Curve

  • 16 octobre 2022
  • Matthew Boyd

Blockchain was first theorized as a concept in the early 1990s. However, it took 20 years before blockchain was utilized to create Bitcoin, the first cryptocurrency, in early 2009. While the use of blockchain to create cryptocurrencies took nearly 20 years, its popularity has exploded since the creation of Bitcoin. 

Student Forum, Droit fiscal

Rights of Sourcing Country to Levy Taxes on Intangible Property

  • 16 octobre 2022
  • Neti Jhatakia

In the era of globalization and technology overtaking traditional business form, the companies and individuals spending more on obtaining intangible property in order to protect its unique identity by way of marks or patents or logo. With companies and businesses operating across the globe, the question arises as to which country has gained the right to levy taxes on profits arising out of intangible assets or property.

Student Forum, Droit fiscal

On the Proposed Suggestions to the Globalized Structure for the Taxation of Multinational Enterprises

  • 16 octobre 2022
  • Fayme K Hodal

This paper first lays out the current system for determining the allocation of multinational enterprises’ revenues for the purposes of taxation, followed by a layered example to aid in clarification, a discussion on the concerns the current system enables, a brief overview of the OECD’s response of Pillar One, and some of the practical implementation issues Pillar One faces, concluding with views on how to more easily achieve the Pillar One aims in a fashion that may be met with less resistance.

Student Forum, Droit fiscal