What kinds of cases are you looking for?    < Previous Case Collections — holding off on collecting on incorrect GST/HST assessmentGST/HST — Advertising servicesGST — air travel commissionsGST — builder built home for personal useGST — builder of new home was not who CRA thought it wasGST/HST — Cancelling interest on "wash transaction"GST — cleaning up years of failure to charge GST on management feesGST — community centre constructionGST/HST — convincing CRA that it was too late to assessGST — corporation providing health care servicesGST/HST — credit for net tax wrongly remittedGST — dental clinicGST — directors' liability (car dealership)GST — directors' liability (company dissolved)GST — director's liability (construction contractor)GST — director's liability (corporate lawyer)GST — directors' liability (person never agreed to be a director)GST — directors' liability (public company)GST — director's liability (restaurant owner)GST — directors' liability assessment — individual was 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miscellaneous adjustmentsGST/HST — new housing rebateGST/HST — net tax refund approvedGST/HST — no "substantial renovation" of apartment buildingGST — partnership assessment was out of timeGST — purchase of real estateGST/HST — purchases by President as agentGST — rebate for ship towed out of the countryGST/HST — rebate to builder of student residenceGST — recognizing when a second objection had to be filedGST/HST — recovering HST not paid on sales incentivesGST/HST — recovering tax from customers after CRA assessmentGST — reducing assessment by almost 90%GST/HST — reducing assessment on self-supply of new homeGST — registrants were not associatedGST — reopening audit after expiry of appeal periodGST — retroactively deeming a business to be GST-registeredGST — sales of condominiumsGST — school board's liability eliminatedGST — services to insolvent companies were zero-ratedGST/HST — services to US company were zero-ratedGST/HST — services were zero-ratedGST — stopping a client from being driven out of businessGST — summer camp teaching English as a second language was exemptGST — tax on purchase of commercial propertyGST — tire installer neglecting to bill GSTGST — townhouse renovationsGST/HST — valuation of student residenceGST — voluntary disclosure — negotiating interest relief and income tax offsetGST — voluntary disclosure acceptedGST — voluntary disclosure of GST collected on commercial rentsGST — voluntary disclosure of management feesGST — waiver of interestGST — waiver of interest and penaltyGST — waiver of penaltyGST — wash transactionGST — were courses educational or recreational?PST — director's liabilityPST — directors' liability (car dealership)PST — directors' liability re data conversion projectPST — eliminating assessment for tax collected by franchisorPST — invoices written up incorrectlyPST — reducing tax on sale of book with CD-ROMPST — refund of tax on supermarket constructionIncome tax — $2 million payment on retirement was tax-freeIncome tax — another refund where return filed lateIncome tax — assessment for transfer by tax debtorIncome tax — auditor demanding too muchIncome tax — builder built home as personal residenceIncome tax — cancelling source deductions assessmentIncome tax — capital gains vs. incomeIncome tax — charitable donation of kidney beansIncome tax — charitable donation to US religious schoolIncome tax — child support deductionIncome tax — claiming business losses from past yearsIncome tax — companies were not carrying on Personal Services BusinessIncome tax — corporation was bare trusteeIncome tax — costs of mother's Notice of Objection deductibleIncome tax — CRA chasing widow for deceased's RRSPIncome tax — deduction for Power of Attorney feesIncome tax — donations to suspect charity allowedIncome tax — expenses against unreported incomeIncome tax — expenses of setting up a film shelterIncome tax — general anti-avoidance ruleIncome tax — getting the $500,000 capital gains exemptionIncome tax — getting Third Level Fairness reviewIncome tax — income from UN agency was tax-freeIncome tax — income not earned personallyIncome tax — intercompany charges deductibleIncome tax — liability of deceased's estate for UK pension incomeIncome tax — no tax on litigation settlementIncome tax — officers of company were acting as outside sales reps, not employeesIncome tax — over-intrusive auditIncome tax — professional fees deduction allowedIncome tax — refunds where returns filed lateIncome tax — "reserve" was not a reserveIncome tax — RRSP on deathIncome tax — sale of condo was not a "flip" for profitIncome tax — tax savings on selling homeIncome tax — taxpayer did not realize she was non-resident and exempt from Canadian taxIncome tax — trust for disabled childIncome tax — voluntary disclosureIncome tax — wages of family members were deductibleIncome tax — waiver of TFSA penalty taxIncome tax — withholding tax on deemed dividendIncome tax and GST — real estate agent's business expensesCollections — execution preventing sale of propertyPayroll withholdings — directors' liability (company dissolved)Payroll withholdings — directors' liability (public company)Payroll withholdings — penalty for late remittanceYour problem goes here Next Case > GST — retroactively deeming a business to be GST-registered My client was a manufacturing company. It reorganized to transfer its major assets (a trademark, dies and molds) to a holding company, in a routine asset-protection transaction. Instead of incorporating a new company for the holding company, my client's lawyer used an existing numbered company, which had been incorporated for another client a few years earlier but had never been used. The numbered company had been registered for GST five years earlier, and had a GST registration number. The numbered company was interposed as the sole shareholder of the manufacturing company, and the business assets were transferred to it. An election was made, as permitted by the GST legislation for "closely related" corporations that are GST registrants, for this transfer to take place without any GST applying. Unfortunately, neither my client nor its lawyer knew that the numbered company's GST registration had been cancelled by the CRA several months earlier. As a result, when the transaction took place the numbered company was no longer GST-registered. A CRA auditor reviewed the transaction two years later, and determined that the companies did not qualify for the election because the numbered company was not a GST "registrant". The auditor issued an assessment against the numbered company for $128,000 of GST, plus interest and penalty. I was asked to solve the problem. On its face, the assessment appeared to be correct. Even if the numbered company paid the GST over to the manufacturing company and claimed input tax credits (which was doubtful because the numbered company had not been GST-registered at the time of the transaction), substantial interest and penalty would remain. Due to my intimate familiarity with all of the GST legislation, I found a solution. For the election to be available at the time of the transaction, the numbered company had to be a GST "registrant", not necessarily GST-registered. The definition of "registrant" in the legislation requires only that the company have been required to register, not necessarily that it have been registered. The numbered company had leased the trademark, dies and molds back to the manufacturing company. I determined that this agreement to lease back the assets had been entered into orally before the sale of the assets — it had to have been, or the manufacturing company would not have sold its business assets to the holding company. Under a somewhat obscure provision of the legislation, the numbered company was deemed to have made the lease-back supply at the time it entered into this oral agreement, and thus became "required" to register as of that date. As a result, it was a "registrant" and the election had been validly filed. I filed a Notice of Objection for the manufacturing company, setting out the above analysis, and supporting the case with Affidavits from the company's principals confirming the oral lease-back agreement that was in place at the time of the sale. The CRA appeals officer agreed, and the assessment was cancelled. Problem vanished! (2005)