What we’re thinking.

March 15, 2023 - Executive Summary Eastmain believed its CEO’s salary qualified as a “Canadian Exploration and Development Overhead Expenses” and deducted the same. Revenu Québec (“RQ”) denied Eastmain’s 2007 to 2010 ...

February 21, 2023 - *Thompson Reuters considers the authors “leading tax experts and litigators”. The authors agreed to grant TR partial rights to this work. This article first appeared in TR’s Tax Dispute and Resolution...

February 11, 2023 - You increase the odds of getting the desired outcome when you give effective discovery answers. Here are some tips to help you.

January 12, 2023 - When a CRA auditor thinks the CRA can take a bigger share of your capital, other CRA agents and the CRA’s lawyers will fight to extract it.

September 28, 2022 - * Thomson Reuters regards the authors as individuals with expertise in tax and litigation. Thomson Reuters has published five Practical Insight chapters on different tax controversy topics, which Coun...

September 1, 2022 - Resolving Tax Disputes (3rd edition) studies tax disputes, conflict levels, and basic strategies. It helps accountants to limit early-stage mistakes and reduce liability. One of the chapters in RTD3 i...

August 30, 2022 - Resolving Tax Disputes (3rd edition) studies tax disputes, conflict levels, and basic strategies. It helps accountants to limit early-stage mistakes and reduce liability. One of the chapters in RTD3 i...

August 18, 2022 - * Thomson Reuters regards the authors as individuals with expertise in tax and litigation. Thomson Reuters has published five Practical Insight chapters on different tax controversy topics, which Coun...

August 15, 2022 - Resolving Tax Disputes (3rd edition) studies tax disputes, conflict levels, and basic strategies. It helps accountants to limit early-stage mistakes and reduce liability. One of the chapters in RTD3 i...

July 5, 2022 - *Thompson Reuters considers the authors “leading tax experts and litigators”. The authors agreed to grant TR partial rights to this work. This article first appeared in TR's, Tax Dispute and Resolutio...

June 30, 2022 - The Supreme Court of Canada, in Canada (Attorney General) v. Collins Family Trust,1 further clarifies when courts can grant equitable remedies of rectification or rescission.

June 21, 2022 - Resolving Tax Disputes (3rd edition) studies tax disputes, conflict levels, and basic strategies. It helps accountants to limit early-stage mistakes and reduce liability. One of the chapters in RTD3 i...

May 30, 2022 - Resolving Tax Disputes (3rd edition) studies tax disputes, conflict levels, and basic strategies. It helps accountants to limit early-stage mistakes and reduce liability. One of the chapters in RTD3 i...

May 24, 2022 - Resolving Tax Disputes (3rd edition) studies tax disputes, conflict levels, and basic strategies. It helps accountants to limit early-stage mistakes and reduce liability. One of the chapters in RTD3 i...

May 22, 2022 - Resolving Tax Disputes (3rd edition) studies tax disputes, conflict levels, and basic strategies. It helps accountants to limit early-stage mistakes and reduce liability. One of the chapters in RTD3 i...

May 17, 2022 - The general trend is that Canada Revenue Agency is disallowing more input tax credits (“ITCs”) for businesses. In addition, the CRA has launched a project to uncover and disallow ITCs they believe rel...

May 16, 2022 - The CRA is imposing more penalties, including foreign reporting penalties. These penalties might, prima facie, look the same, but there are key differences. The first step in overturning these penalti...

April 6, 2022 - Resolving Tax Disputes (3rd edition) studies tax disputes, conflict levels, and basic strategies. It helps accountants to limit early-stage mistakes and reduce liability. One of the chapters in RTD3 i...

March 29, 2022 - *Thomson Reuters regards the authors as individuals with expertise in tax and litigation. Thomson Reuters has published five Practical Insight chapters on different tax controversy topics, which Count...

March 8, 2022 - Thompson Reuters considers the authors “leading tax experts and litigators”. The authors agreed to grant TR partial rights to this work. This article first appeared in TR’s, Practical Insights in May ...

February 23, 2022 - Generally speaking, taxpayers can deduct fees and costs paid to prevent a potential assessment or dispute a reassessment under paragraph 60(o)(i) of the Income Tax Act R.S.C. 1985, c. 1 (the “ITA”). W...

February 9, 2022 - I suspect you started your legal career with the same expectations I had. You expected to spend a lot of time drafting countless legal research memoranda. And I imagine you spent way more hours than y...

February 8, 2022 - *Thompson Reuters considers the authors “leading tax experts and litigators”. This content first appeared in TR’s, Practical Insights in May 2020.*

January 19, 2022 - *Thompson Reuters considers the authors “leading tax experts and litigators”. The authors agreed to grant TR partial rights to this work. This article first appeared in TR’s, Practical Insights in May...

January 18, 2022 - *Thompson Reuters considers the authors “leading tax experts and litigators”. This content first appeared in TR’s, Practical Insights in May 2020.*

November 11, 2021 - *Thompson Reuters considers the authors “leading tax experts and litigators”. The authors agreed to grant TR partial rights to this work. This article first appeared in TR’s, Practical Insights in May...

November 5, 2021 - We want to focus on winning your tax dispute.

November 5, 2021 - In the past, financial secrecy was common. The world has changed. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (the “OECD”) Tax Evasion Initiatives and the Canada Revenue Agency’s (“CR...

August 24, 2021 - We work with clients who make and uphold the following promises.

August 3, 2021 - We appreciate your decision to select Counter Tax Litigators LLP as your legal counsel. By choosing to work with us, you accept and agree to our client service terms, detailed below for your reference...

July 21, 2021 - We intend to deliver the best possible tax dispute experience and result. Unfortunately, we cannot give you a guarantee. But we can make specific promises and increase the odds of achieving our goal.

June 7, 2021 - As first-year law students, we wanted to develop the skills necessary to become successful lawyers. In doing so, we would also connect our classroom learning and previous professional experience to wh...

June 6, 2019 - I quit my job at KPMG Law to work at Counter. I assume that you’re reading this article because you’re thinking about doing something similar.

October 6, 2018 - We’re driven to build the law firm that we want to see in the world. A law firm that that delivers what entrepreneurs actually need.

July 27, 2018 - A few months ago, Counter asked me to reflect on my recruitment experience and why I chose to spend my 2L summer with them. I wrote “The Environment that Will Grow Tomorrow’s Best Litigators”. I am no...

July 27, 2018 - I might break the internet if I tried to tell you everything that I learned during my year of articling at Counter. No two weeks are the same. I can do a million things or dig into a couple of large t...

April 16, 2018 - Peter explains the corporate residence tests and outlines the three types of corporate decisions, (i.e., strategic management decisions, effective management decisions, and junior management decisions...

March 14, 2018 - As a 2L law student looking at my career options and the future of law, I found myself less interested in Bay Street and more interested in working at a top boutique law firm. After all my research an...

February 22, 2018 - Counter Tax Lawyers and LexisNexis Canada have joined forces to bring you a new tax podcast that is designed to keep accountants and lawyers up to date on the changes that will impact their clients an...

February 21, 2018 - Counter Tax Lawyers and LexisNexis Canada have joined forces to bring you a new tax podcast that is designed to keep accountants and lawyers up to date on the changes that will impact their clients an...

January 15, 2018 - Peter Aprile and Yoni Moussadji bring you Season 1 Episode 4, designed to expand accountants’ expertise and equip you with actionable takeaways (and some free verifiable CPD).

November 21, 2017 - We’re a little famous for building systems that deliver more value to our clients.

October 10, 2017 - Peter Aprile and Yoni Moussadji bring you Canadian Tax Insights, Season 1 Episode 3, to provide accountants with actionable takeaways (and some free verifiable CPD) related to the tax shelter and prom...

August 15, 2017 - We’re hiring for a 2L summer student, and we really want the right one. We could simply tell you that our firm is great and you should trust us with your career but, instead, we’re going to do this ot...

July 25, 2017 - My first day at Counter Tax Lawyers was like a movie trailer that makes you mark your calendar for the release date: fun, action packed, and exciting. And it didn’t disappoint.

May 26, 2017 - Canadian Tax Insights, Season 1 Episode 2 is designed to provide accountants with actionable takeaways (and some free verifiable CPD).

April 21, 2017 - Peter Aprile and Yoni Moussadji kick-off Canadian Tax Insights, Season 1 Episode 1, to provide accountants with actionable takeaways (and some free verifiable CPD).

February 23, 2017 - McCarthy Tetrault and Thomson Reuters asked Peter Aprile to speak about how Counter Tax Lawyers PC has worked to improve legal service delivery and client legal outcomes at Evolve Law’s Tech-Savvy In-...

November 22, 2016 - We believe our greatest strength is how we think. We’re constantly sharpening our skills, solving interesting problems and reaching higher. We started applying traditional risk and decision analysis t...

October 4, 2016 - If you’re facing a tax dispute, you want to hire the best possible lawyer. But how are you supposed to evaluate the skills and experience of a particular law firm? How can you gauge the likelihood of ...

September 1, 2016 - On my first day of work, the firm gave me a sheet that listed Counter’s eight core values.

July 27, 2016 - The Lawyers Weekly interviewed Peter Aprile to gain his thoughts and experiences in building a law firm. In particular, the author (Simon Hally) posed a series of questions and asked Peter what he wou...

July 18, 2016 - The Fastcase 50 award recognizes 50 of the smartest, most courageous innovators, techies, visionaries, and leaders in the law.

April 18, 2016 - July 2020 Update: We've added a few resources that should be helpful when making your decision, including our proprietary CounterMeasure software & our law firm comparison tool. We are entrepreneurs a...

February 19, 2016 - The Building NewLaw Podcast (“BNL”) is a new podcast that features interviews with lawyers, legal technologists, and other like-minded people that are creating new ways to deliver and receive legal se...

January 22, 2016 - Tax appeals are highly complex and uncertain. It requires tax lawyers to make decisions based on unknown information and uncertain events. It is impossible to guarantee results or eliminate risk.

September 23, 2015 - Advocate Daily originally published, “CRA may see influx of tips after Ashley Madison hack”, in September 2015. Relationship strife may not be the only fallout from the recent information hack at the ...

September 22, 2015 - The Lawyers Weekly and Canadian Lawyer recently interviewed Peter Aprile to gain his thoughts and experiences on starting Building NewLaw (“BNL”) and the advice he would give to other lawyers thinking...

August 6, 2015 - The Supreme Court of Canada's recent ruling that administrative monetary penalties do not offend constitutional rights will likely have a “chilling” effect on tax advisers, Toronto tax litigation lawy...

July 28, 2015 - Advocate Daily originally published, “Passion, talent not enough to prove business activities”, in July 2015. A recent Tax Court of Canada decision that questioned whether a hockey blog is a business ...

July 20, 2015 - Notional and contingent tax liabilities can have serious, unintended effects on the calculation of Net Family Property (NFP) and equalization calculations. Failure to identify a potential tax liabilit...

June 3, 2015 - TORONTO, June 3, 2015 – ATX Law, a Toronto-based tax controversy and litigation firm, is rebranding as Counter Tax Lawyers. The new name better reflects the firm’s niche expertise while showcasing the...

April 30, 2015 - In Tax Court of Canada appeals, the pleadings are the most important documents that the parties file. The Appellant (taxpayer) is required to file a Notice of Appeal, and the Respondent Minister of Na...

March 23, 2015 - When it comes to launching a successful law practice, a healthy financial foundation is essential, as it will allow a lawyer to focus on bringing in new business, Toronto tax litigation lawyer Peter A...

January 27, 2015 - The Federal Court of Appeal has recently made it clear that the decision in Canada v. Sommerer [2012] FCA 207 is correct and subsection 75(2) of the Income Tax Act does not apply to property sold for ...

November 24, 2014 - A significant costs award and even-handed analysis provided by the Tax Court of Canada in a recent case will serve to remind the government that tax litigation carries financial consequences, Toronto ...

November 19, 2014 - The Tax Court of Canada has ruled the allowable limits provision of the TCC tariff is not definitive and judges have the discretion to exceed amounts set out in it.

October 6, 2014 - A recent Tax Court of Canada decision will hopefully persuade the Minister of National Revenue to reconsider the routine imposition of harsh penalties for failing to report income, Toronto tax litigat...

October 3, 2014 - In a potentially precedent-setting case, the Tax Court of Canada has determined that the often “harsh” penalties imposed on taxpayers who misreport income in two out of four years cannot be imposed if...

May 27, 2014 - Tax disputes with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) present a complex challenge for individuals and businesses alike. Understanding the interplay between audit, objection, appeals, and collections proce...

May 20, 2014 - The Tax Court of Canada in October last year released its reasons for judgment in Brent Kern Family Trust v. Canada [2013] T.C.J. No. 286. The case was the TCC’s first opportunity to review and apply ...

May 6, 2014 - We want to deliver great results and provide cost-effective legal services. In order to meet these goals, we need to work together. We understand that you expect us to competently, professionally and ...

April 29, 2014 - Advocate Daily initially originally published, "Tax court should go further when awarding costs”, in March 2014. Although a recent Tax Court of Canada decision shows a continued trend towards higher c...

April 24, 2014 - The Income Tax Act (“ITA”) provides various tax advantages to corporations that qualify as Canadian-Controlled Private Corporations (“CCPC”).

March 14, 2014 - Late last year, the Tax Court of Canada released its reasons for judgment in Ironside v. Canada [2013] T.C.J. No. 298, and Gouveia v. Canada [2013] T.C.J. No. 353. In Ironside and Gouveia, the Tax Cou...

January 15, 2014 - The Canada Revenue Agency (“CRA”) announced, and now initiated, its 5th Annual Letter Campaign (the “Campaign”).** The CRA is in the process of sending 33,000 letters to taxpayers that have claimed bu...

December 9, 2013 - Advocate Daily originally published “New CRA tools may mean more tax haven proceedings” in December 2013. Although the Canada Revenue Agency has reportedly struggled to deal with the number of cases i...

November 16, 2013 - Eighteen new words have been added to the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, and Canada’s Taxpayers’ Ombudsman Paul Dube is hoping they will convince hundreds and perhaps even thousands more individuals and bus...

February 15, 2013 - In cases heard under the TCC’s general procedure (as opposed to the informal procedure), the winning party may receive more than the amount of taxes in dispute plus interest—that is, the court may awa...

February 10, 2013 - In its first decision on third party penalties, the Tax Court of Canada has curtailed the power of the Canada Revenue Agency; as expected, the CRA has already decided to appeal.

December 14, 2012 - We have experience representing SR&ED claimants at the objection and appeal stages. At times, we have questioned the CRA’s level of service and processes surrounding SR&ED objections. Today, the CRA p...

December 2, 2012 - Prior to 1999, the Minister of National Revenue and Canada Revenue Agency (hereinafter jointly referred to as the “CRA”) had two legislative tools to severely punish taxpayers, advisors, planners, pro...

November 28, 2012 - The Canada Revenue Agency (“CRA”) has assessed a number of taxpayers who have participated in the detax schemes. In addition, the CRA has imposed 50% subsection 163(2) gross negligence penalties. We t...

November 25, 2012 - We have published various tax law blog entries related to the Canada Revenue Agency’s audit of restaurants and electronic sales suppression software (commonly referred to as “Zapper” software). The CR...

November 9, 2012 - 

September 3, 2012 - We have written several postings related to the proposed changes in the Tax Court Act and Tax Court Rules. To review, the proposed changes seek to increase the Tax Court Informal Procedure Limits (i.e...

August 20, 2012 - The Canada Revenue Agency Appeals Branch provided our firm with the following statistics related to the number of tax dispute and tax litigation files along with the rates of settlement, withdrawal an...

August 7, 2012 - The Department of Finance (Finance) has released a document entitled Consultation Regarding the Impact of Contingency Fees on the Effectiveness of the Scientific Research & Experimental Development Ta...

July 23, 2012 - Subparagraph 60(o)(i) of the Income Tax Act (ITA) allows a taxpayer to deduct legal fees paid to contest an assessment of tax, interest or penalties including, but not limited to, fees incurred to pro...

July 16, 2012 - In or about 1995, the “detax” or “untax” movement has been moving through Canada. Since that time, detax organizations have been gaining profit holding seminars that spread the detax philosophy. Gener...

July 9, 2012 - It is trite law that the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has the authority to impose tax penalties for non-compliance with the Income Tax Act (ITA). The Tax Court of Canada (Tax Court) recently released K...

June 16, 2012 - Tucked in with the promise of prosperity, job creation, and fiscal restraint in the federal government’s recent budget was another commitment: to move forward with changes aimed at improving caseload ...

June 12, 2012 - We have discussed the Department of Finance’s (“Department”) proposed changes to the Tax Court of Canada Act. The Department posits that these changes will improve tax disputes between taxpayers and t...

February 24, 2012 - Subsection 169(1) of the Income Tax Act (the “Act”) provides, in part, that a taxpayer may institute an appeal in the Tax Court of Canada to dispute a (re)assessment or notice of confirmation (jointly...

January 4, 2012 - Section 227.1 of the Income Tax Act and section 323 of the Excise Tax Act provide that the CRA can assess corporate directors personally for a corporation’s failure to remit payroll deductions and GST...

November 22, 2011 - 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 ...

November 12, 2011 - 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.

September 19, 2011 - The Financial Post Executive Podcast just posted our interview entitled “The Practical Taxman Cometh”.

August 23, 2011 - The Tax Court’s Bench and Bar Committee and the Canadian Bar Association’s Tax and Charities sections have sponsored a new resolution proposing that the Canadian Bar Association renew its efforts to p...

August 10, 2011 - Stephan Gieselmann, a CRA Assistant Director, created a Facebook page urging the public sector to boycott Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses (“CFIB”) members’ businesses reports Ms. Stefani...

August 8, 2011 - The CRA’s Taxpayers’ Ombudsman reported that several taxpayers contacted the Taxpayers’ Ombudsman office complaining the Tax-Free Savings Account (“TFSA”) rules related to withdrawals and over-contrib...

August 3, 2011 - Notices of reassessments issued by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) can have serious financial implications for small businesses. In 2009 and 2010, the CRA audited approximately 380,000 small and mediu...

August 2, 2011 - The Globe and Mail published an informative article on August 2, 2011 explaining the CRA’s new audit program that targets restaurants using software designed to suppress restaurant sales i.e., zapper ...

July 21, 2011 - The Canada Revenue Agency’s Voluntary Disclosure Program (the ‘‘Program’’) encourages taxpayers to voluntarily disclose unreported income. As set out in Information Circular IC00-1R2, a taxpayer who v...

April 15, 2011 - Yesterday’s Ontario Bar Association Tax Law Section Conference was a great opportunity for our firm to discuss the Canada Revenue Agency’s (“CRA”) new Related Party Initiative (“RPI”), which targets h...

March 31, 2011 - The Canada Revenue Agency (“CRA”) is launching a new project named the Related Parties Initiative (“RPI”) aimed at wealthy individuals and related entities. The CRA intends to initiate the RPI audits ...

November 21, 2008 - Stephen Kaegi and his wife, Elise Dallaire, learned the hard way that music, love and taxes don't always mix well. The Ontario couple have spent two years trying to persuade federal tax officials that...

February 7, 2008 - Six years after the bankruptcy of a car dealership, an Ontario tax collector began pressing its ailing former director for unpaid sales taxes.