Barejo – Federal Court of Appeal states that determining whether the notes in Barejo were debt for purposes of the ITA rather than s. 94.1 would be “an improper use of judicial resources”

The Federal Court of Appeal has dismissed the Barejo appeal – but on the grounds that the Rule 58 question posed to the Tax Court was whether the “notes” in question were debts for purposes of the Act rather than for purposes of s. 94.1 thereof. As it did “not appear as though the answer to the question asked will resolve anything in the context of the underlying appeal which turns on the meaning of the word ‘debt’ in section 94.1,” it followed in the view of Noël C.J. “that endeavouring to dispose [of] the appeals on the merits would serve no useful purpose and give rise to an improper use of judicial resources.”

Neal Armstrong. Summary of Barejo Holdings ULC v. The Queen, 2016 FCA 304 under s. 94.1(1).