For some time there has been debate about our current system of providing double tax relief for foreign-source active business income earned by Canadian corporations indirectly through foreign affiliates. In the 1970’s the drafters of the Act chose a hybrid mechanism using both the exemption and credit systems. But this requires surplus account tracking, […]
Monthly Archives: October 2020
Case Comment: Gladwin Realty Corporation v Canada (2020 FCA 142) A Narrow Approach to What Constitutes Abuse of SAAR
In Gladwin Realty Corporation v Canada (2020 FCA 142), the Federal Court of Appeal upheld the Tax Court's finding of abuse relying on a GAAR analysis. However, the FCA reached its conclusion in a slightly different way than the Tax Court. The difference is indicated in two interesting comments that the Court made. One […]
Week in Review - October 18, 2020
Home Office Tax Deductions Simplified - More Changes May Come Yet: The Canada Revenue Agency is making changes to the Form T2200 - which is the form the CRA requires employers to sign confirming an employee’s eligibility to claim expenses - in order to simply home office tax deductions, in response to changing work […]
The Toronto Maple Leafs, The Canada Revenue Agency, and The Joy of Legal Research
Jesse McLean, a Staff Reporter with the Toronto Star, broke a seemingly lurid story late last month regarding an alleged “tax loss creation scheme” conducted by two former Toronto Maple Leafs players; Darcy Tucker and Shayne Corson. The story recounts allegations made by the Canada Revenue Agency against the two former Maple Leafs stars, […]
The Latest Developments in the BEPS 2.0 Project
On October 12, 2020, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) transmitted a webcast to inform the latest developments regarding the work that the OECD/G-20 Inclusive Framework on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) has been doing to address the challenges arising from the digitalization of the economy (the so-called “BEPS 2.0”). The project builds […]
Commentary: Home Equity Tax
The debate about reforming the taxation rules of the principal residence exemption (PRE or the “Exemption”) has been revived recently. Under s.40(2)(b) of the Income Tax Act (“the Act”), a sale of a principal residence qualified as such under s.54 of the Act would result in an exempt portion of the capital gain ensuing […]
Week in Review - October 2, 2020
Federal Government Quietly Promises Automatic Tax Returns in Speech from the Throne: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's federal government is reportedly set to introduce an automatic tax return system for simple federal tax returns, which could revolutionize access to tax return benefits for many Canadians who do not file returns every year. A study from […]