Collins Barrow video related to the Federal Budget 2012 changes to the Scientific Research & Experimental Development Program (SR&ED).
We have written about the Department of Finance’s proposed rules to amend the Tax Court of Canada Act. However, we did not post PWC Canada’s submission. This morning, PWC Canada sent its submission to our firm
In an earlier post, we reported that the Department of Finance (the “Department”) proposed rules to amend the Tax Court of Canada Act and invited the public to comment on proposed changes. In the interim, the following articles and submissions have been published commenting on the proposed changes.
On December 3, 2011, the National Post published its article entitled “Tax court aims for speedier resolutions”.
PWC Canada sent its submission to the Department. We are working to obtain a copy of PWC Canada’s submission.
On December 14, 2011, the Tax Executives Institute sent its comments to the Department.
On January 20, 2012, the Lawyers Weekly published its article entitled “Limit bump among Tax Court changes”.
On March 9, 2012, the Ontario Bar Association sent its submission to the Department. (Full disclosure: I am a member of the OBA Tax Executive and one of its Public Affairs Liaisons. My responsibilities included working with the OBA Tax Executive to develop its response to the Department’s Proposals and draft the OBA’s submission.)
Berlin v. Canada (the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) relates to an application for judicial review of an Immigration Officer’s decision to deny an application for a permanent-resident visa. Although not a tax case, we believe that the Federal Court’s characterization of the Minister’s inadequate reasons are applicable to several Minister of National Revenue’s and the Canada Revenue Agency’s decisions to deny taxpayer relief from penalties and interest and decisions to deny applications under the Voluntary Disclosure Program.
The importance of the decision under review to this family demanded that careful consideration be paid to all of the evidence that the application not be denied on the basis of catch phrases about personal responsibilities and inconclusive observations about an apparent lack of forthrightness. A misrepresentation is not established by mere appearances.
Read ATX Law’s latest case comment, Fighting for an Extension of Time, published CCH’s Tax Topics Newsletter on January 6, 2012.
The Tax Court of Canada’s decision in Buckingham v. Her Majesty the Queen was appealed to the Federal Court of Appeal (“FCA”). The FCA recently released its reasons for judgement. The courts’ decisions have provided valuable insight and generated discussion within the tax community. The Canadian Tax Foundation recently published ATX Law’s article entitled The Due Diligence Defence in Directors’ Liability Tax Disputes.
In Bozzer v. Her Majesty the Queen (“Bozzer”), Federal Court of Appeal held that the taxpayer relief provisions contained in the Income Tax Act allow the Minister of National Revenue (“Minister”) and Canada Revenue Agency (“CRA”) to cancel interest accrued in any taxation year ending within ten years before the taxpayer’s application for relief, regardless of when the underlying tax debt arose.
The Minister and the CRA have, in some circumstances, attempted to disregard the common law. We have been waiting for the CRA to announce its response to the Bozzer decision.
Today, the CRA distributed a news release entitled Taxpayer relief deadline is December 31, 2011. This news release confirms that the CRA will follow the Federal Court of Appeal’s decision in Bozzer. In addition, the CRA announced that it will adopt this change for requests for taxpayer relief made under the Air Travellers Security Charge Act, Softwood Lumber Products Export Charge Act and the Excise Act.
The Ministry of Finance (BC) released a director’s liability tax bulletin that outlines the government’s position regarding director’s liability and the circumstances in which taxpayers may be held personally liable for a director’s failure to remit tax (the “Director’s Liability Bulletin”).
The Director’s Liability Bulletin includes the following passage related to deemed directors or de facto directors.
If a person who is not a director acts as if they are a director, the ministry may deem that person a director for the purposes of director’s liability. Director’s liability applies to such a person as if they were a director of record.
The ministry may consider a person to be a director if that person:
- purports to have the authority of a director,
- under their own authority, undertakes major actions or transactions for the corporation, or
- under their own authority, directs the business and affairs of the corporation.
However, a person will not be deemed a director because of actions they take:
- under the direction of a shareholder, director or officer of the corporation,
- as a lawyer, accountant or other professional acting solely in their professional capacity, as a trustee in bankruptcy, or
- as a receiver or secured creditor controlling its interests in the property of the corporation.
If the ministry believes that a person acted as a director, it will request additional information. If the ministry then decides that the person acted as a director, it will notify the person of its decision.
We recommend director taxpayers (or taxpayers that may be deemed to be defacto directors) to retain a tax lawyer with experience in director’s liability tax disputes to respond to any government requests for additional information and/or to prepare appropriate legal submissions.
Although the Director’s Liability Bulletin provides a limited explanation of the law surrounding director’s liability, we believe that knowing and understanding the government’s public position is valuable first step.
Interested readers can read the full Director’s Liability Bulletin here.
The Minister of Finance, the Minister of Justice and the Attorney General of Canada have invited the public to comment on proposed changes to the Tax Court of Canada’s Rules.
If adopted, the proposals would:
The Department of Finance may release draft legislation related to the proposals.
The deadline for submissions is December 16, 2011.
Interested readers can read the official news release Government Invites Comments on Proposals to Improve the Caseload Management of the Tax Court of Canada along with the Backgrounder: Proposals to Improve the Caseload Management of the Tax Court of Canada.
