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 […]
Featured Cases
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 […]
The European General Court Cuts Apple to Its Core: Reflections on Jurisdiction to Tax, Fiscal and Tax Sovereignty, and the Limits of Transfer Pricing
The Apple Judgment[1] On July 15, 2020, the European General Court published its long-awaited judgment in the Apple “state aid” case.[2] At issue is whether Ireland “aided” Apple by providing tax rulings limiting Irish tax to an agreed measure of the branch profits attributable only to activities in Ireland of two Apple subsidiaries that […]
CBS Canada Holdings Co v Canada: Hearsay Analysis at the Tax Court of Canada and Federal Court of Appeal
The views expressed in this publication are from a personal perspective, and do not represent the views or the positions of the Department of Justice or those of the Government of Canada. This article originally appeared on Taxnet Pro TaxNews Tax Disputes & Resolution Centre. The Tax Court of Canada found that CBS’ […]
Cameco: The Taxpayer Prevails in the Federal Court of Appeal and the Tax Court’s Decision is Sustained – But Conceivably Much More Than That
Very shortly ago, the Federal Court of Appeal’s decision in The Queen v. Cameco Corporation (2020 FCA 112, delivered on June 26, 2020) was made public. By any measure in contemporary taxation (in Canada certainly, but for the transfer pricing world globally) the decisions of both the Tax Court of Canada and the Federal […]
Performing Functions of Government – What is a Government Instrumentality?
Recently, the Federal Court of Appeal addressed the nature of a government instrumentality. This classification, expressed in various ways in the Income Tax Act, is important because, broadly, governments generally do not tax each other. This is notable in various paragraphs of section 149 of the Act, and is a longstanding exception to the […]
“Diving” into Tax Treaty Issues: The Deep End or the Shallow End?
The United Kingdom Supreme Court’s recent decision in Fowler v Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, [2020] UKSC 22, is likely to be seen as an important international tax case and, to that end but possibly without as much justification as discussion in the tax community may make it seem, as a “tax […]
Use Your Own After-Tax Money for Fun
In Canada, the truth of the matter is that generally you pay for having fun with your own after-tax money. If you pursue a childhood dream and take a trip to the International Space Station for $41.8 million, the trip may be “unusual and exotic”, but the personal nature is not. That is, in […]