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CRA's Reach Beyond Limitation Periods
Jun 19 2024 - Voluntary disclosures (“VDs”) are permitted for Canadian tax purposes under the Canada Revenue Agency’s (the “CRA”) Voluntary Disclosures Program (the “VDP Program”), and their importance is highlighted by a recent case where the CRA reached back int...
https://www.taxandtradelaw.com/Tax-Trade-Blog/cra-s-reach-beyond-limitation-periods.html -
The Long Arm of the CRA
Jun 05 2024 - We have blogged here and here about the real estate projects that the CRA is currently working on, usually resulting in assessments of GST/HST on sales of renovated homes or short-term rental housing. In a recent Tax Court case involving Cheema, the...
https://www.taxandtradelaw.com/Tax-Trade-Blog/the-long-arm-of-the-cra.html -
GST/HST Sham Assessments
Jun 03 2024 - As a tax lawyer assisting clients in defending themselves against the all-powerful CRA (and its equally powerful ally, the Department of Justice – Canada’s largest and best-equipped law firm), I welcome any judicial decisions that help to right that ...
https://www.taxandtradelaw.com/Tax-Trade-Blog/gst-hst-sham-assessments.html -
CRA Assessing Home Reno Sales
May 29 2024 - When a specialty tax practice like our own, focussed on GST/HST and other indirect taxes, sees a plethora of inquiries from homeowners being either assessed by the Canada Revenue Agency (“CRA”) on the sale of their homes, or threatened with such asse...
https://www.taxandtradelaw.com/Tax-Trade-Blog/cra-assessing-home-reno-sales.html -
Vaping Products: A Web of Taxation - But Same Bad Policy Choices?
May 15 2024 - As we wrote here, Canada’s rules taxing Vaping Products were first enacted in 2018, with the Tobacco and Vaping Products Act (“TVPA”), continue to involve, with a number of provinces and territories now getting into the taxing game. While the T...
https://www.taxandtradelaw.com/Tax-Trade-Blog/vaping-products-a-web-of-taxation-but-same-bad-policy-choices.html -
GST Allocation Methods: What is "Fair & Reasonable"?
May 09 2024 - Businesses engaged exclusively in commercial activities get full input tax credits (“ITCs”) enabling them to recover all the GST/HST they pay in the course of their business activities. Organizations engaged exclusively in “exempt” activities (...
https://www.taxandtradelaw.com/Tax-Trade-Blog/gst-allocation-methods.html -
United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement: Going Strong, For Now!
May 07 2024 - The United States, Mexico and Canada have enjoyed near-complete free trade since the inception of the North American Free Trade Agreement (“NAFTA”) in 1994. In fact, Canada and the US have enjoyed “free trade” even longer than that, since the...
https://www.taxandtradelaw.com/Tax-Trade-Blog/united-states-mexico-canada-agreement-going-strong-for-now.html -
CRA Continues Assessing Home Sales: Home Resales Being Subject to GST/HST
Apr 26 2024 - As we initially described here, the Canada Revenue Agency (“CRA”) continues auditing and assessing individual home-owners who have either substantially re-built their homes or commissioned the construction of a new home for their own use on the resal...
https://www.taxandtradelaw.com/Tax-Trade-Blog/cra-continues-assessing-home-sales-home-resales-being-subject-to-gst-hst.html -
CRA Trust Rules Trumps Unsecured Loans! Small Business Loans in Jeopardy!
Apr 08 2024 - In a “bad news case” for unsecured creditors, the Federal Court has confirmed that the CRA’s deem trusts over things like unpaid GST/HST and income tax source deductions take precedence to prevent loan repayment to unsecured creditors. This mea...
https://www.taxandtradelaw.com/Tax-Trade-Blog/cra-trust-rules-trumps-unsecured-loans-small-business-loans-in-jeopardy.html -
GST/HST Win for Orthodontists! Supreme Court Refuses Appeal of FCA's Orthodontic Supplies Decision
Feb 26 2024 - In December 2023, the Supreme Court of Canada dismissed the Crown’s application for Leave to Appeal the Federal Court of Appeal (“FCA”) decision in Canada v. Dr. Kevin L. Davis Dentistry Professional Corporation 2023 FCA 76(“Davis”), leaving the FCA ...
https://www.taxandtradelaw.com/Tax-Trade-Blog/gst-hst-win-for-orthodontists-supreme-court-refuses-appeal-of-fca-s-orthodontic-supplies-decision-1.html -
Optional Sales Tax Rules for Direct Sellers
Feb 20 2024 - The direct selling industry poses a number of unique challenges for Canadian sales tax regimes. The patchwork of separate federal GST/HST and provincial PST/QST regimes only further complicate the matter, making it difficult for new entrants to...
https://www.taxandtradelaw.com/Tax-Trade-Blog/optional-sales-tax-rules-for-direct-sellers-1.html -
CRA Always gets their Tax Debtors Third-Party Transfers Assessable & Assessed
Feb 07 2024 - A recent Federal Court of Appeal (“FCA“) decision in Pillon v. Canada (2024 FCA 24) highlights the difficulties that Tax Debtors will face if trying to avoid GST and income tax debts. Both the Excise Tax Act (“ETA”) and the Income Tax Act (“ITA...
https://www.taxandtradelaw.com/Tax-Trade-Blog/cra-always-gets-their-tax-debtors-third-party-transfers-assessable-assessed.html -
One Day Late Filing: Notice of Objection Dismissed by Tax Court!
Feb 05 2024 - The recent decision of the Tax Court of Canada (“TCC”) in Refind Environment Inc. v. The King (2024 TCC 2) is a poignant reminder of the importance of filing deadlines. In Refind, the TCC dismissed an application for an extension of time to file a ...
https://www.taxandtradelaw.com/Tax-Trade-Blog/one-day-late-filing-notice-of-objection-dismissed-by-tax-court.html -
Director's Personally Liable for Many Tax Debts
Jan 08 2024 - A great new year’s resolution for Directors of a Canadian private corporations is to brush up on GST/HST and income tax compliance! The reason is that where a corporation incurs a tax debt for GST, HST or income tax source withholdings, the dir...
https://www.taxandtradelaw.com/Tax-Trade-Blog/director-s-personally-liable-for-many-tax-debts.html -
Amazon & Ebay Pledge to Health Canada
Dec 21 2023 - On September 28, 2023, Health Canada launched the Canadian Product Safety Pledge (the “Safety Pledge”) – a voluntary compliance initiative aimed at increasing product safety with respect to consumer products and cosmetics available to Canadians onlin...
https://www.taxandtradelaw.com/Tax-Trade-Blog/amazon-ebay-pledge-to-health-canada.html -
Seg Funds - Big Things on the GST Horizon!
Dec 19 2023 - If there was such a thing as a “10-Alarm” fire, CRA’s public release of GST Interpretation RITS 202403 would seem to fit that bill. In this April 2023 Interpretation – issued only a few weeks ago – CRA takes the view that Employers with pension fund...
https://www.taxandtradelaw.com/Tax-Trade-Blog/seg-funds-big-things-on-the-gst-horizon.html -
What is up with Ontario EHT Enforcement?
Dec 18 2023 - When our Firm sees a spike in Ontario Employer Health Tax (“EHT”) files, we know that something is up. And this may not bode well for employers that have traditionally viewed Ontario’s relatively low-rate EHT as an unimportant tax, delegating i...
https://www.taxandtradelaw.com/Tax-Trade-Blog/what-is-up-with-ontario-eht-enforcement.html -
BC PST Application for Partnerships
Dec 07 2023 - One of the more notable differences between Income Tax and GST/HST is that for GST/HST purposes partnerships are expressly defined to be “persons” – separate from the partners of the partnership. Most provincial sales tax statues take the same ...
https://www.taxandtradelaw.com/Tax-Trade-Blog/bc-pst-application-for-partnerships.html -
Expiry Review: Cold-Rolled Steel
Nov 24 2023 - On November 14, 2023, the Canadian International Trade Tribunal (“CITT”) issued a notice that it was beginning an expiry review in respect of cold-rolled steel originating in or exported from the People’s Republic of China (“China”), the Republic o...
https://www.taxandtradelaw.com/Tax-Trade-Blog/expiry-review-cold-rolled-steel.html -
Tax on Tax: BC Major Events Tax In Spotlight
Nov 13 2023 - As we blogged about here, experienced indirect tax practitioners will know to always check section 154 of the Excise Tax Act (“ETA”) when dealing with provincial taxes and to think about whether the that provincial tax is excluded from the “considera...
https://www.taxandtradelaw.com/Tax-Trade-Blog/tax-on-tax-bc-major-events-tax-in-spotlight.html