Aridi - Tax Court of Canada finds that bad advice could be relied upon for statute-barring purposes

In a recently-noticed case, the taxpayer was reassessed outside the normal reassessment period for a capital gain he had realized on disposing of ½ of his interest in a rental property.  He had been told by his accountant that recognition of this gain could be deferred until the other ½ interest was disposed of.

Notwithstanding that essentially all the somewhat unfavourable cases in this area were cited to him (e.g., Snowball,  College Park and Gebhart) and virtually none of the favourable ones (e.g., Reilly, Chaumont, Envision, Gauthier and Petric), Hogan J found that there was no "neglect" in the taxpayer’s reliance on this incorrect advice (which the taxpayer had probed before accepting), so that the reassessment was statute-barred.

This suggests that you generally are off the hook for the all bad advice you have given once the applicable reassessment periods have passed.

Neal Armstrong.  Summary of Aridi v. The Queen, 2013 DTC 1189, 2013 TCC 74 under s. 152(4)(a)(i).