General

Summary of the CRA’s Changes to the Voluntary Disclosures Program under the Income Tax Act The CRA has issued IC00-1R7 – Voluntary Disclosures Program (“IC00-1R7”), introducing several changes to the Voluntary Disclosures Program (“VDP”). Applications received on or after October 1, 2025 will be assessed under...

Practice Note 21 & the Rhetoric Practice Note No. 21 (dated November 30, 2018) is the Tax Court of Canada’s directive on how settlement conferences are to be handled. According to the Court: 1. Settlement conferences will not be scheduled unless...

The "Business" Test in Happy Valley Farms Ltd. v. The Queen, 1986 CanLII 7434 (FC) If income is characterized as business income then 100% is subject to taxation. Only 50% of a capital gain is subject to taxation. Determining whether the business income characterization applies requires referring to the definition of a...

In Northwest Hydraulic Consultants Ltd v R, 1998 CarswellNat 696, 98 DTC 1839 , the Tax Court of Canada considered whether certain scientific and technical work conducted by the appellant qualified as scientific research and experimental development (SR&ED) under the Income Tax Act, RSC 1985, c 1 (5th Supp) for the purpose of tax...

How is CRA Improving its Ability to Collect Crypto Currency Data? Currently, governments and tax agencies such as Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) are putting together a framework to better track and tax crypto currency transactions. The CRA has adopted two primary approaches to collecting data from crypto currency...

Tax Court of Canada Jurisdiction & Main Rehabilitation Co. v. Canada, 2004 FCA 403 The Tax Court of Canada does not have the jurisdiction to consider issues of abuse of process. Its jurisdiction is limited to determining the correctness of  a tax assessment. For example, the Tax Court cannot set aside an assessment...

Choptiany v. The King, 2022 TCC 112 The case of Choptiany v. The King, 2022 TCC 112 involved a tax scheme promoted by DeMara Consulting Inc. and Fiscal Arbitrators. It centered on convincing some taxpayers to unwittingly claim fictitious business losses and expenses to create large tax refunds. The Canada Revenue Agency...

Director Liability & Resignation Under certain circumstances, directors of a corporation can be held personally liable for the tax arrears of a corporation. This is referred to as director liability and one defense is that the Canada Revenue Agency (“CRA”) must assess a director within 2 years of resignation. Hence,...

Tax Law Services Portfolio - Memorandum of Understanding The Department of Justice (DOJ) in Canada primarily represents the Crown, not the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) as an independent entity. How it works:The CRA is a federal agency responsible for tax administration.When legal matters arise (such as tax disputes or...

Eligible Canadian Public Corporations & SR&ED Historically, only Canadian Controlled Private Corporations (“CCPC”) have been eligible to claim Scientific Research & Experimental Development (“SR&ED”) tax incentives. However, now eligible Canadian public corporations (i.e., publicly‑listed...