In yet another interesting legal battle involving Uber, the Ontario Court of Appeal has confirmed that even when a party overpaid on GST/HST, there is no right to recover that tax from the person or company that charged that tax.
This means the only redress is through the refund or rebate provisions in the Excise Tax Act (“ETA”).
One thing that usually goes undiscussed when contemplating appeals to the Tax Court of Canada (“TCC”) is what happens if a taxpayer loses.
One thing that CAN happen is a “costs award” against the taxpayer, which is where a TCC judge orders the taxpayer to pay a portion of the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) costs in defending the appeal – which puts a significant premium on understanding one’s “chances of success” BEFORE filing the appeal!
Unexpected Costs
As we have previously written about here, the CRA has been modernizing its electronic services. As part of these changes, the CRA has updated the GST/HST e-filing returns to require additional lines of detail. Businesses e-filing their GST/HST returns need to understand this new change and complete their GST/HST e-filing returns properly!
As of May 13, 2024, registrants e-filing their GST/HST returns have been encountering the new forms, and the CRA reminded registrants of the change in its Excise GST/HST News – No. 117.
Those who previously filed paper returns will immediately recognize these additional details as lines from the paper returns which have now been migrated over to the e-filing system.
With the new Canadian fuel charge provided for in the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act (the “GGPPA”), many Canadian and non-resident oil and gas companies doing business in Canada with fossil fuel products have now successfully registered.
Now comes the unexpectedly difficult part: monthly reporting.
General Reporting Requirement
In general, the GGPPA imposes timely reporting requirements including monthly returns for most businesses that are not “road carriers”. Most returns are due the last day of the calendar month (1) following a registrant’s reporting period OR (2) following the reporting period in which a charge became payable for non-registrants.
As we have blogged about here and here, the CRA is after a whole swath of residential homeowners who are finding themselves being taxed on the sale of their new or used residential properties, after substantially renovating them.
A recent decision of the Tax Court of Canada (“TCC”) in Bryan v. The King, 2024 TCC 108 highlights the problems that homeowners face when going into these ventures with possible “dual motivations”.
Toronto Office
10 Lower Spadina Avenue, Suite 200, Toronto, Ontario, M5V 2Z2 Canada
Phone: (416) 864-6200| Fax: (416) 864-6201
