Articles 2023

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.

The author provides a high-level overview of the new TOSI rules and considers potential problems that might arise, particularly for the owner-manager of a small to medium size business.

The author discusses important changes to the limited partnership at-risk-amount rules in response to the FCA’s decision in Green.

In two recent decisions, Harvey v. The Queen, 2018 TCC 67 and Ashworth v. The Queen, 2018 TCC 76, the Tax Court of Canada addressed issues of consideration and valuation in the context of non-arm's length transfers by tax debtors, demonstrating the importance of expert valuation and documentation.

In this article the author highlights the proposal in the 2018 Federal Budget to increase reporting requirements for trusts and the penalties for failure to comply.