Vancouver Neighbourhood Declares 'Tax Resistance' Until Local Homeless Population Provided Shelter and Supports: Residents of the Strathcona neighbourhood in East Vancouver, B.C., are pledging to withhold property tax payments until a local homeless encampment is dealt with by government officials. Local media in Vancouver are reporting that over 300 people are estimated to be […]
Canadian News
Week in Review - August 07, 2020
Canada's Budgetary Deficit "Manageable" Without Tax Increases if COVID-19 Response Measures Ended Soon, Says Parliamentary Budget Officer: Canada's Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) Yves Giroux made comments to media this week that indicate that his office believes that Canada's currently unprecedented budgetary deficit is "manageable" so long as COVID-19 economic response programs are ended soon. […]
Supreme Court of Canada Grants Leave to Appeal for Alta Energy Luxembourg Treaty Shopping Case
On August 6, 2020, the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) granted leave to hear the case between the Crown and Alta Energy Luxembourg (“Alta Luxembourg”). The Federal Court of Appeal (“FCA”) had released its decision in The Queen v. Alta Energy Luxembourg S.A.R.L., 2020 FCA 43 (“Alta Energy FCA”) earlier this year on February […]
Time to Start W(h)ining: The Federal Government Announces (Partial) Agreement with Australia to Repeal Excise Duty Exemption on Canadian Wines
On July 27, the Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade, Mary Ng, issued a sobering blow to Canadian wineries and their patrons. After a World Trade Organization (WTO) challenge against Canada from Australia claiming “discriminatory measures,” Ms. Mary Ng announced that the two countries had come to a (partial) agreement that […]
Commentary: South Korean Government Proposing 20% 'Crypto Tax'
South Korea is proposing to introduce a cryptocurrency tax ('crypto tax') that will impose a 20% tax rate on cryptocurrency income that is 2.5 million won, about $2,000 US, or higher. The proposed crypto tax bears some interesting contrasts with the Canadian tax authority's approach to the increasingly popular cryptocurrency: The proposed crypto […]
Week in Review - July 31, 2020
Tax Court of Canada Rules that B.C. Business Owner Who Faced "Blatant" Racism and Sexism Not Liable for $100,000 in Taxes Owed: The Tax Court of Canada ruled last week that B.C. business owner Karla Penate is not liable for over $100,000 in outstanding taxes from her Vancouver-are roofing business, Delphina Enterprises Ltd, due […]
Now You “See” It, Now You Don’t: More Reflections on Taxable Presence In a World With Less Observable Presence
The international tax community is consumed with re-evaluating the utility and adequacy of typical markers of international tax jurisdiction, associated among others with the tax treaty notion of “permanent establishment”. In this context, a PE, as it is known, is a description of what is considered to be a sufficient intensity of business presence […]
Is a First Nation Sovereign if the Canada Revenue Agency Enforces its Tax Laws?
A distinct “order” of government The 1996 Royal Commission (Commission) on Aboriginal Peoples[1] gathered information about Aboriginal perspectives on sovereignty, self-determination, and self-government. It also examined the legal and political principles that underlie and inform the emergence of an Aboriginal order of government [author’s emphasis] in Canada. Emanating from these two information sources, the […]
Prelude to Saro Persaud and "First Nations Taxation"
In the following post, Saro Persaud examines “international” taxation in Canada with reference to First Nations among other nations in Canada and in that connection how First Nations taxation is administered. The situation of “first nations” in relation to other “nations” within Canada reflects parallels unconstrained by the typical domestic Canadian political and constitutional […]
Commentary: Ontario’s Tax System Hurts Marginal Earnings of Low-Income Individuals
The attached commentary from earlier this year by Jessica Rapson, a Master of Public Policy student at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, University of Toronto, and Ali Asrani, a JD student at Osgoode Hall Law School, examines the impact of the taxation of rising earnings and the corresponding reduction of […]