Supreme Court of Canada Reserves Judgement After Two Days of Hearings in "Carbon Tax" Dispute: Following two days of hearings on Tuesday and Wednesday, the Supreme Court of Canada chose to reserve judgement in the critical "carbon tax" series of cases, which unites three separate appeals from the Provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Ontario, […]
Monthly Archives: September 2020
Week in Review - September 18, 2020
US Drops Tariffs on Canadian Aluminum After Canada Considers Reciprocal Measures: The Office of the United States Trade Representative announced on Tuesday that it was dropping a 10% tariff tax on imported Canadian aluminum, after media reports indicated that the Canadian government was considering reciprocal taxes on US goods. The announcement marks the end […]
Passive Investments: Revisiting and Visualizing the July 2017 Consultation Paper
The economic impacts of COVID-19 relief programs directly intersect with tax law. As the system becomes more stressed for tax revenue, discussions about seemingly immutable topics are bound to return. What was once forsaken is up for discussion. The passive investment income of private corporations is one such topic. I discuss this below. […]
Two Mischiefs and Internal Consistency: Excessive Eligible Dividends
How does the Income Tax Act know if a corporation has the capacity to pay an eligible dividend? If an eligible dividend is good for the taxpayer because it means less personal tax payable, surely the Act must police this area of the law. Below, I detail the policing regime and the purposes motivating […]
Deriving and Understanding Dividend Gross-Up Rates
Have you ever wondered why the dividend gross-up rates are what they are? Allow me to do some basic high school math to show you. Integration and its Purpose Understanding the math requires an appreciation of the purpose of dividend income “integration.” The purpose of integrating dividend income (disregarding capital dividends) is to […]
Case Summary: R. v. Schouw (2020 BCCA 232)
On August 7, 2020, the British Columbia Court of Appeal (the “Court”) upheld a lower court decision that convicted a real estate designer and developer for willfully evading Goods and Sales Tax (“GST”). The case addresses “deliberation” of a taxpayer in tax matters such that, in a case like this, it may be concluded […]