Insights

Key Takeaways Benefit without cost invites scrutiny: Courts scrutinize tax structures that offer benefit without tradeoff, and when they find this gap, they side with the CRA and uphold the reassessme...

Two decades later, the CRA continues to test the link between borrowing and income in financing structures, often under s. 20(1)(c)(i). The logic in Ludco still governs how those challenges are read. ...

Key Takeaways No inference of intent: Courts rejected the claim that surplus cash was earmarked for decommissioning in the absence of contemporaneous reserves, allocations, or disclosures. Rational co...

Key Insights at a Glance Deferral as strategy: Departure tax can be deferred without interest when acceptable security is posted, preserving liquidity during transition. Forms of security: CRA accepts...

Key Takeaways Forum defines outcomes: The taxpayer’s appeal was quashed without the merits ever being heard because the chosen forum lacked jurisdiction. Procedure equals substance: Courts enforce jur...

Key Takeaways Framing gap: The Tax Court accepted CRA’s framing because Vortex’s reply lacked engineering support and legal positioning. In other disputes, when claims were framed with qualified techn...

The CRA no longer relies on blunt audit tactics to detect offshore non-compliance. It operates a layered system; data-driven, globally integrated, and increasingly predictive. Most taxpayers facing of...

Key Takeaways Premium payments as benefits: When one company pays premiums on a policy owned by another, courts treat it as a taxable benefit — intent does not override structure. Expanding reach of s...

Canadian Law Awards name Natalie Worsfold and Counter Tax Litigators LLP finalists for Female Trailblazer of the Year, recognizing leadership and judgment in complex tax disputes.