Tax Court of Canada

The first thing to do is to file a Notice of Objection. A Notice of Objection is a kind of internal appeal that can be filed with the CRA to dispute the amount of tax levied in a Notice of Assessment or Reassessment. If you disagree with the findings of the CRA to your Notice of Objection, then the last recourse is to file an appeal with the Tax Court of Canada.

The Tax Court of Canada is a specialized court in Canada that has exclusive jurisdiction over legal tax matters. The Tax Court is the body of court or competition jurisdiction to handle all tax court appeals and tax reviews. The Tax Court of Canada has the jurisdiction to hear a wide variety of appeals under several statutes such as the Excise Tax Act, the Employment Insurance Act, the Excise Act and the Customs Act. For most Canadians, the jurisdiction that is most relevant is of course the Income Tax Court’s jurisdiction to hear tax appeals arising from disputes with the Canadian tax department under the Income Tax Act.

The Tax Court has only three powers granted to it with respect to appeals of assessments and reassessments:

• The Tax Court of Canada judge may confirm the assessment or reassessment issued by the CRA;
• The Canada Tax Court judge can vacate the assessment, ordering the CRA to reconsider its decision and issue a reassessment to the taxpayer;
• The Tax judge may also direct the Minister to reassess the taxpayer in accordance with his or her instructions, based on findings of fact determined at trial.

Where the extraordinary circumstance, the Tax Court of Canada has the discretion of offer the taxpayer interest or penalty relief based on the following:

•  natural or man-made disasters, such as floor or fire;
• civil disturbances or disruptions in services, such as a postal strike;
• a serious illness or accident; or
• serious mental illness or distress, such as death in the immediate family.

A Notice of Appeal to the Tax Court of Canada must be filed within 90 days from the date of the issuance of the Notice of Assessment. If you miss this deadline, there are mechanisms to file an Application for an Extension of Time to allow an additional 12 months to file the Tax Court Appeal.

In order to be successful with the request for an extension of time you must be able to demonstrate the following:

• That within the appeal period:

• • You could not appeal or have someone else appeal for your; or
  • You intended to appeal;
• That it would be fair to grant your application;
• That you applied as soon as you could; and
• That you have reasonable grounds for appealing.