I’ve seen a number of cases where a family member consents to be a director of a corporation—exactly why nobody seems to know after the fact—and then ends up being assessed for unremitted source deductions. The family member might be uneducated and barely able to speak English, but that won’t stop the assessments. The CRA and the Ministry of Revenue are unsympathetic. The courts are less cold-blooded it seems. (more…)
Tax Court litigation—or any other kind of litigation for that matter—is inherently unpredictable. Take Pigeau v. The Queen, 2009 TCC 582, for example. In that case, a key issue was the value of a property transferred from an individual to his grandfather. The taxpayer, who had the onus of proving value, showed up with nothing more than an MLS listing and a report that couldn’t be entered into evidence because the agent failed to give the proper notice. The Minister, on the other hand, had an expert’s appraisal in hand and the expert available to testify. The expert’s report was duly received, but the taxpayer still won, however, because the judge gave the benefit of the doubt to the taxpayer in choosing values from the ranges given by the expert. Which just goes to show you.
Given the economic climate, it’s not surprising that we are receiving a lot questions about allowable business investment losses (ABILs). Nor is it surprising that many taxpayers find it difficult to claim ABILs, given the many pitfalls. (more…)
Taxpayers who participated in ‘retail’ donation tax shelters continue to fare poorly in the Tax Court. See Maréchaux v. The Queen, 2009 TCC 587. (more…)
In Coutre v. The Queen, 2009 TCC 456, the taxpayer tried to argue that, if an assessment under subsection 15(1) is made against a shareholder, then the Minister, to prevent double taxation, must reduce the benefit by the amount of any outstanding shareholder loan. (more…)
I’ve seen a number of transactions lately where the owner of a life insurance policy proposes to transfer it to a corporation controlled by the owner. The benefits of corporate-owned insurance are well-known, of course, but such a transfer could also permit the owner to withdraw significant amounts of money from the corporation tax free. (more…)
In Langille v. The Queen, 2009 TCC 139, the taxpayer attempted to claim an ABIL for amounts advanced to a corporation he controlled. The corporation in turn had suffered losses because it had participated in a joint venture that turned out to be a fraud. (more…)
Is a trust required to file a tax return where the trust’s only ‘income’ is a capital dividend? (more…)
The Tax Court, in Neumann v. The Queen, 2009 TCC 81, has decided that a capital dividend is a transfer of property for the purposes of section 160, just like an ordinary dividend.
