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Carousel Schemes & Scrap Gold
Oct 02 2020 - One of the CRA’s latest projects appears to involve the scrap gold and telecommunications industries, which has been the subject of a number of recent CRA audits, culminating in a number of legal challenges in various contexts. In the May 2020 case ...
https://www.taxandtradelaw.com/Tax-Trade-Blog/carousel-schemes-scrap-gold.html -
GST Director’s Liability For Unreported Income
Sep 28 2020 - Unreported income discovered by the CRA may lead to consequences on the GST/HST component related to that income which, in turn, can sometimes result in personal liability to the director. This situation arose in the recent case of Duque v. Canada, ...
https://www.taxandtradelaw.com/Tax-Trade-Blog/gst-director-s-liability-for-unreported-income.html -
Directors: Your Spouses & Children Can be Assessed!
Sep 21 2020 - As the world struggles with COVID-19, and small and medium businesses endure the worldwide economic slowdown, directors of Canadian corporations need to know about the long arm of the CRA when it comes to ensuring that GST net tax obligations and ITA...
https://www.taxandtradelaw.com/Tax-Trade-Blog/directors-your-spouses-children-can-be-assessed.html -
COVID-19: Implications on GST/HST and Real Estate
Sep 21 2020 - Many will remember the almost hysteric approach that some professional advisors took to “Y2K” (e.g., the one conference topic that burned deep into my brain was “The Commodity Tax Implications of Y2K”) – which ultimately proved to be either entirely ...
https://www.taxandtradelaw.com/Tax-Trade-Blog/covid-19-implications-on-gst-hst-and-real-estate.html -
GST/HST and Value for Duty on Cross-Border Transactions
Aug 04 2020 - In the current global business environment, increasingly many US companies are selling their goods into Canada, and using a variety of business structures to do so. However, many companies continue to struggle with their tax and customs obligat...
https://www.taxandtradelaw.com/Tax-Trade-Blog/gst-hst-and-value-for-duty-on-cross-border-transactions.html -
CRA Resuming Audits!
Jun 11 2020 - Last March 18th, the CRA announced the suspension of the vast majority of audit activities as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. How quickly things change! ...
https://www.taxandtradelaw.com/Tax-Trade-Blog/cra-resuming-audits.html -
A Complete Victory for CRA in Data-Mining Cases!
Jun 10 2020 - As we blogged about here and here, the CRA has an often forgotten power to issue ‘Requirements for Information’ (“RFIs”) on third parties which can be used to compel them to hand over evidence in their possession to the CRA to be used to determine if...
https://www.taxandtradelaw.com/Tax-Trade-Blog/a-complete-victory-for-cra-in-data-mining-cases.html -
CITT: “Real” Importer Must have Ties to Commercial Transaction
Jun 10 2020 - Importers of goods have both current and ongoing responsibility and obligations under the Customs Act (the “Act”) and its Regulations. On a “current” basis (i.e., at time of importation), include reporting the goods for import, and proper declaration...
https://www.taxandtradelaw.com/Tax-Trade-Blog/citt-real-importer-must-have-ties-to-commercial-transaction.html -
Bad News for Directors: FCA Overturns TCC in Colitto
Apr 28 2020 - The recent decision in Canada v. Colitto (2020 FCA 70) has seen the FCA weigh in on a huge issue for so called “derivative assessment” of directors and other person potentially at risk for a corporate taxpayer’s tax liability. With the financial...
https://www.taxandtradelaw.com/Tax-Trade-Blog/bad-news-for-directors-fca-overturns-tcc-in-colitto.html -
Agency Agreement Implied by Conduct of Parties
Apr 02 2020 - A recent case highlights the fact that at law, an agency agreement can be implied to exist based on the conduct of the parties alone – without any explicit written or verbal references to “agency”. This is often referred to as an “Implied Agenc...
https://www.taxandtradelaw.com/Tax-Trade-Blog/agency-agreement-implied-by-conduct-of-parties.html -
Time Bomb Ticking on Canadian Home Construction Industry
Feb 03 2020 - They say that the “devil is in the details”. An individual buying a run-down house, fixing it up, and living in it a while, and then selling for a tidy income tax exempt profit (the house being the individual’s principal residence) sou...
https://www.taxandtradelaw.com/Tax-Trade-Blog/time-bomb-ticking-on-canadian-home-construction-industry.html -
HUGE Change for Directors’ Liability Assessments?
Jan 21 2020 - A recent case has hopefully clarified a huge issue for so called "derivative assessment" of directors and other person potentially at risk for a corporate taxpayer's tax liability. ...
https://www.taxandtradelaw.com/Tax-Trade-Blog/huge-change-for-directors-liability-assessments.html -
Incoterms® 2020 Changes Incoming!
Nov 21 2019 - The International Chamber of Commerce’s (“ICC”) Incoterms® are relied on across the world by businesses to simplify and standardize the delivery of internationally shipped goods. The terms function so that the obligations on both buyers and sellers a...
https://www.taxandtradelaw.com/Tax-Trade-Blog/incoterms-2020-changes-incoming.html -
The Power of the Net Worth Assessment
Jun 26 2019 - When assessing a taxpayer’s income, the CRA has an often-overlooked auditing power that allows it to consider a taxpayer’s net worth at specific points in time and use it to calculate the taxpayer’s unreported income. This is called a ‘net-worth asse...
https://www.taxandtradelaw.com/Tax-Trade-Blog/the-power-of-the-net-worth-assessment.html -
Are POS Machine Providers Making Taxable Supplies?
Jun 17 2019 - A recent audit initiative of the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has targeted financial service intermediaries – and in particular, member service providers (“MSPs”) that are engaged in business in the credit card/electronic payment industry. These...
https://www.taxandtradelaw.com/Tax-Trade-Blog/are-pos-machine-providers-making-taxable-supplies.html -
Thinking of Fixing your Books? Don't!
May 29 2019 - The CRA has a number of rules, found in the Income Tax Act (“ITA”), and the Excise Tax Act (“ETA”) requiring taxpayers to keep books and records, and to keep them available for audit and inspection for up to seven years after the current year. The ...
https://www.taxandtradelaw.com/Tax-Trade-Blog/thinking-of-fixing-your-books-don-t.html -
Ontario Tobacco Tax Update 2019
Apr 09 2019 - The Ontario Ministry of Finance is continuing to “lead the charge” against Ontario tobacco wholesalers – turning the industry upside down with assessments worth tens of millions of dollars for failure to collect the Ontario Provincial Tobacco Tax (PT...
https://www.taxandtradelaw.com/Tax-Trade-Blog/ontario-tobacco-tax-update-2019.html -
CRA Extraditions: The Long Arm of the Law
Mar 13 2019 - When it comes to policing Canada’s voluntary tax compliance system (for income taxes and the GST/HST), the CRA has several effective enforcement weapons in its arsenal. One weapon that one does not often see employed is international extradition of i...
https://www.taxandtradelaw.com/Tax-Trade-Blog/cra-extraditions-the-long-arm-of-the-law.html -
Exempt or Taxable, That is the Question
Jan 24 2019 - Should you really dispute the CRA’s finding that your supplies are taxable and not exempt? Many of the “exempt” versus “taxable” cases that we see from the GST/HST perspective put the recipient (the one usually arguing for “exempt” treatment) and th...
https://www.taxandtradelaw.com/Tax-Trade-Blog/exempt-or-taxable-that-is-the-question.html -
Tax Debts Complicate Retail Loans Made to Business Owners
Jan 15 2019 - The recent decision of the Federal Court of Canada (the “FC”) in Canada v. Toronto Dominion Bank, 2018 FC 538, (“TD Bank”) could make it much more difficult for business owners to get personal loans and mortgages. ...
https://www.taxandtradelaw.com/Tax-Trade-Blog/tax-debts-complicate-retail-loans-made-to-business-owners.html