Devon – Federal Court of Appeal implies that large corporations may have the right to raise new issues within one year of their Objection deadline (and finds that they can appeal new issues which were considered and rejected by CRA Appeals)

Although s. 169(2.1) prohibits a large corporation from appealing to the Tax Court an issue which it did not raise in its Notice of Objection, Webb JA found that where an appeals officer considers and communicates rejection of subsequently-raised issues, this has the effect of amending the Notice of Obection, so that the new issues can also be raised in a Notice of Appeal. He also stated:

[S]ince the Minister accepted these submissions, it is a moot point whether the Minister could have refused to accept them on the basis that they were made well after the time permitted…for seeking an extension of time to file a notice of objection, had expired.

This suggests that it may not work for CRA to respond to this decision by instructing appeals officers to refuse to consider new issues if such issues are raised in submissions made within the s. 166(7)(a) one-year extension period.

Neal Armstrong. Summary of Devon Canada Corp. v. The Queen, 2015 FCA 214, under s. 169(2.1).