Citation: 2006TCC92
Date: 20060216
Docket: 2005-2452(IT)I
BETWEEN:
JEAN GRAHAM,
Appellant,
and
HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN,
Respondent.
REASONS FOR JUDGMENT
Beaubier, J.
[1] This appeal pursuant
to the Informal Procedure was heard at Calgary, Alberta, on February 10, 2006.
The Appellant was the only witness.
[2] Paragraphs 10 to 14
inclusive of the Reply to the Notice of Appeal outline the matters in dispute.
They read:
10. In response to the Notice of Objection, the Minister
confirmed the tax assessed for the 2003 taxation year. The tax assessed was
confirmed as the Appellant did not move to start a job, a business or to attend
a post secondary educational institution and the moving expenses did not
quality as eligible medical expenses.
11. In so reassessing the Appellant on December 13, 2004 and
confirming the tax of the Appellant, the Minister relied on the same assumptions
of fact, as follows:
(a) in or about June 2003, the Appellant moved from Rocky
Mountain House to Sylvan Lake, Alberta;
(b) the Appellant incurred moving expenses of
$17,159.00 in moving from Rocky Mountain House to Sylvan
Lake;
(c) in the 2001, 2002 and 2003 years the Appellant
was employed by the Government of the Province of Alberta,
operating Red Deer Regional Health Authority;
(d) the Appellant’s work location was in Red Deer, both prior to and after the move;
(e) the Appellant’s work location did not change
during the 2003 year;
(f) the move from Rocky Mountain House to Sylvan Lake did not enable the Appellant to
be employed at a new work location or to operate a business at a new work
location;
(g) the Appellant did not relocate to Sylvan Lake to commence full-time attendance at a post-secondary educational
institution;
(h) the Appellant did not have any income from a new
work location in the 2003 year;
(i) the Appellant did not lack normal physical
development and did not have a severe and prolonged mobility impairment;
(j) the Appellant’s dwelling in Sylvan Lake was not more accessible by the
Appellant than the Rocky Mountain House dwelling; and
(k) the Appellant’s dwelling in Sylvan Lake did not allow the Appellant to be more mobile and functional than
in the Rocky Mountain House dwelling.
B. ISSUES (sic) TO BE DECIDED
12. The issue to be decided is whether the Appellant is
entitled to deduct moving expenses of $17,159.00.
C. STATUTORY PROVISIONS, GROUNDS RELIED
ON AND RELIEF SOUGHT
13. The Respondent relies on section 62, subsections 248(1)
and paragraph 118.2(2)(1.5) of the Income Tax Act R.S.C. 1985, c.1 (5th
Supp) (the “Act”).
14. He submits that the Appellant is not entitled to moving
expenses as the Appellant’s move was not in respect of an “eligible relocation”
as defined in subsection 248(1) of the Act in that the Appellant did not
relocate to enable her to carry on a business or to be employed and she did not
relocate to commence full-time attendance at a post-secondary educational
institution. The Appellant is not entitled to claim moving expenses pursuant to
subsection 62(1) of the Act.
[3] The Appellant
abandoned the claim for a medical expense relating to the move during the
Hearing.
[4] Assumptions 11(a),
(b), (g), (i), (j) and (k) were not refuted.
[5] Respecting the
remaining assumptions in paragraph 11:
(c) The Appellant was an appointed
officer, namely, Chair of the Red Deer Regional Health Authority (the
“Region”). She was appointed to this office on March 28, 2003 to be effective
from April 1, 2003 by Alberta’a Minister of Health and Wellness. (Exhibit
A-1).
(d) Effective April 1, 2003 the Region was expanded
and became a new Region extending from the Saskatchewan to the British Columbia
border (east-west) and from Drumheller to Drayton Valley (north-south)
excluding metro Calgary and metro Edmonton. It also included the mental
hospital at Ponoka. Its geographic size more than doubled.
(e) A major part of the Appellant’s
job is to travel throughout the Region and meet with a population of 300,000
and others in an area of 60,000 square kilometres and deal with their
representations or complaints. She works out of Red Deer which is about 25
kilometres east of Sylvan Lake.
(f) In fact and in law, effective April
1, 2003, the Appellant was newly appointed to a new job. She was never assured
of the appointment and there were other candidates for the job. Moreover, the new
Region effective April 1, 2003 was a completely different geographic entity and imposed more than double
the distances which the Chair had to travel to meetings. The Appellant’s move
was from Rocky Mountain House in the west centre of the new Region, about 100 kilometres
west of Red
Deer which
is the headquarters of the Region. Red Deer was apparently the headquarters of the previous,
much smaller region which the Appellant had chaired before April 1, 2003.
(h) The Appellant was paid for each
meeting which she attended and the Court finds that she had income from those
meetings in 2003.
[6] The Court finds
that the Appellant was appointed to a new job on April 1, 2003. Her move from
Rocky Mountain House to Sylvan Lake was an eligible relocation within the meaning defined in
subsection 248(1). For this reason she is entitled to deduct her moving
expenses incurred in 2003 for this move in the amount of $17,159.00.
[7] The appeal is
allowed. The Appellant is awarded the costs and disbursements respecting the
appeal.
Signed at Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, this 16th day of February 2006.
"D.W. Beaubier"
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