Aubrey Dan Family Trust – Ontario Superior Court finds that an original assessment not dealing with tax in a particular province starts the normal reassessment period for that province

A purported Alberta trust which wanted to have more time to make submissions to CRA that it was not resident in Ontario provided a related waiver on the prescribed (T2029) federal form. When it was ultimately reassessed for Ontario income tax (with the previously assessed Alberta tax being reversed) it unsuccessfully argued that the waiver was invalid because the T2029 form did not refer to the fact that it was a prescribed form for provincial purposes.

More interestingly, Lederman J also rejected the counter-argument of the Crown that, as the 2008 assessment had not dealt with Ontario taxes, it was the 2012 “reassessment” which in fact was the original assessment of the taxpayer’s Ontario tax (so that the normal reassessment period did not start running until then). He stated (at para 17):

… If the original notice does not constitute notification of no tax payable in all provincial or territorial jurisdictions, then a taxpayer receiving such a notice, could be assessed for income taxes in any other province or territory indefinitely. …

Neal Armstrong Summary of Aubrey Dan Family Trust v. Minister of Finance, 2016 ONSC 3801 under Taxation Act, 2007, s. 158 and ITA s. 152(4).