SimpsonWigle Law LLP Tax News

Harmony sounds like something we should all want, even when it comes to taxes. Be that as it may, the Ontario government has created a webpage that discusses the harmonization of its PST with the federal GST.

Lawyers will be familiar with Hare v. Hare, 2006 CanLII 41650, in which the Ontario Court of Appeal held that the limitation period for a demand note began to run with its delivery not with default, much to the consternation of the Ontario bar. The Ontario legislature moved quickly to amend the Limitations Act, 2002 with retroactive effect to January 1, 2004, so that the limitation period begins to run with default. For a useful summary, see this article in The Lawyer’s Weekly.

Paragraph 149.1(4)(c) in my version of the Practitioner’s Income Tax Act (35th edition) is missing an “or” at the end of it. I emailed David Sherman, the PITA editor, about this, and he confirmed that the “or” was missing in S.C. 2007, c. 35 (that is, it’s a Finance error, not a PITA error). He will now add the missing conjunction in square brackets.

Every now and then I spot these errors, or I notice a cross-reference that could be added, and I send an email to David about it. He is usually very responsive (I often receive responses the same day), and he almost always incorporates my suggestions. I know it’s kind of nerdy (”Only ‘kinda’?” I hear you say), but it does improve the quality of what I’m using, which is no doubt why David reacts so favourably to my emails.

Bill C-10, “An Act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on January 27, 2009 and related fiscal measures”, has received second reading in the Senate and been referred to committee.

“Government of Canada Moves Quickly on Seniors’ Tax Relief and Other Outstanding Measures“. But can the government act quickly enough?

Finance released new draft legislation today.

Bill C-50 received Royal Assent yesterday and became law as S.C. 2008, c. 28.

Here’s some tax trivia to get us through the month of June. How does one cite the Income Tax Act? (more…)

Ahem. Apparently the text of the budget bill—Bill C-50—has been on the LEGISINFO website for some time. In addition to the text of the Bill, you can find an RSS feed for the Bill’s status at its homepage.

From a Finance press release issued today:

The Honourable Jim Flaherty, Minister of Finance, today introduced legislation in the House of Commons to implement key measures from Budget 2008. The bill also includes language to protect the Government’s fiscal plan from the effects of Bill C-253.

The release makes C-253 sound like a pack of marauding wolves.

I will post a link to the budget bill when it becomes available online.