LATE TAX OBJECTIONS FACE STRICT DEADLINES
NO SECOND CHANCES WHEN APPLYING FOR AN EXTENSION OF TIME TO OBJECT
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A Notice of Objection (“NoO”) may be filed late – but ONLY if certain conditions and deadlines are met. Many taxpayers are unaware of the ability to apply for a late filing, and equally unaware that when THOSE deadlines are missed, it is all over!
In this Tax Appeals Series blog, we review the conditions and deadlines for filing a LATE Notice of Objection under the Excise Tax Act (“ETA”) and the Income Tax Act (“ITA”), including some recent jurisprudence where taxpayers learned a hard way that they may be able to miss the first deadline, but not the second!
Step 1: File the Objection ON TIME if you Can!
The timeframe for objecting to a Notice of Assessment begins when the Canada Revenue Agency (“CRA”) sends the Notice of Assessment (“NoA”) to the taxpayer. Generally, the taxpayer must submit their NoO within 90 days of the NoA’s mailing date, under section 301 of the ETA and 165 of the ITA (although the ITA deadline is later for individual taxpayers), and it is "best practices" to always do so!
Step 2: File Application to Extend Time ON TIME!
A taxpayer who misses that 90-day deadline for filing a Notice of Objection will have a maximum of one year after the deadline has expired to apply to the CRA for an extension of time to object (an “Extension”). This can be done for GST purpose under 303 of the ETA and for income tax purposes under section 166.1 of the ITA.
An Application must be accompanied by the actual NoO which the taxpayer wishes to submit, and demonstrate that the taxpayer:
- Intended to file on time or was unable to do so;
- Applied for the extension as soon as possible; and
- Has a “just and equitable” reason.
Step 3: Apply to the Tax Court of Canada
If the CRA chooses NOT to grant the taxpayer’s Extension (or allows 90 days to pass without issuing a decision), the taxpayer can apply to the Tax Court of Canada (“TCC”) for further review, although again, strict rules apply, with some differences between the ETA and ITA. Under section 304 of the ETA, for example, the taxpayer has 30 days from the date the CRA rejects their application for an Extension to apply to the TCC for an Extension; the ITA allows 90 days under section 166.2 .
The application to the TCC must show that the prior application to the CRA was filed on time and, substantively, it must prove the same three conditions are met as the prior application to the CRA.
TCC: These Timeframes are INFLEXIBLE
Several recent cases from the TCC demonstrate that if these deadlines are missed, the application to extend will ultimately fail: in Amador v. the King, 2025 TCC 143 , and Warner v. the King, 2025 TCC 144 , the taxpayers failed to apply to the CRA for an Extension within 90-days; in Ng v. The King, 2025 TCC 172 and Des Roches v. The King, 2024 TCC 152 , the taxpayers met the first deadline but applied to the TCC too late. In all four cases, the applications were DISMISSED.
extended, but only if meeting other rules and deadlines.
Experienced Tax Appeal Counsel can help with these
applications, increasing chances of success!
Takeaways
The 90-day deadline to object to a Tax Assessment can be missed. However, the subsequent process for applying for an Extension has several of its own conditions and deadlines that cannot be missed. Recent TCC cases show that the TCC is NOT messing around with these deadlines: all late applications are tossed, no ifs, ands or buts.
Experienced Tax Appeal Counsel can help increase chances of success.
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