About Tom:
Tom retired as a Tax Partner at Smythe LLP in January 2020. As a Tax Partner, he most enjoyed interacting with clients and getting to know their business and their challenges. What he enjoyed doing as a Tax Partner at Smythe LLP has not changed in his retirement. He retired early to do less of it without the same the deadlines. He continues to work with a handful of clients, primarily advising on succession planning as well as the purchase or sale of businesses and some other tax consulting projects.
Tom enjoys teaching Canadian income tax for CPABC and does tax updates for smaller CPA firms. He is the Chairperson of the Eagle Ridge Hospital Foundation and continues to be involved with the Canadian Mental Health Association.
His passion project is representing taxpayers who cannot afford to fight the CRA. He does this for free as his way of using his tax knowledge to give back to the community.
Presentation Summary:
A Potpourri of Tax Topics
- Amend a tax return and risk triggering a CRA audit or make the fix in the subsequent year and risk the CRA audit
- There is a provision in the Income Tax Act (subsection 104(21.2)) that sometimes restrict the ability to have a Family Trust, that realizes a capital gain on the sale of shares of a “Qualified Small Business Corporation, to allocate the capital gain to Beneficiaries of the Trust in order for the Beneficiary to claim their capital gains exemption to offset the allocated gain.
- Tax Court has imposed limits on our ability to amend corporate income tax returns in loss years, even when the loss years are “statute bared”
- Under paragraph 152(4)(a) of the Income Tax Act, the CRA a reassess what is known as a “statute bared year”, where the taxpayer or the person filing the return has made a misrepresentation that is attributable to neglect, carelessness, willful default or fraud in supplying information on the income tax return. How high is the bar for CRA to prove “neglect” or “carelessness”? It is a lot lower than you think.