Bauer – Federal Court of Appeal finds that CRA could constitutionally issue a s. 231.2 requirement to the taxpayer’s bank during a Special Investigations review

The CRA special investigations division issued s. 231.2 requirements to two banks to get the taxpayer’s bank statements, and used these to assess him for over $5M a year in unreported business income. The taxpayer’s pleadings in the Tax Court included the assertion that, since he was under investigation at the time that the requirements were issued, the information thereby obtained was inadmissible as his s. 8 Charter rights had been infringed.

In confirming that the Tax Court had correctly struck out this pleading, Webb JA stated:

While using requirements under section 231.2 of the ITA to obtain information or documents after an investigation has commenced may result in that information or those documents not being admissible in a proceeding related to the prosecution of offences under section 239 of the ITA, it does not preclude that information or documents from being admissible in a Tax Court of Canada proceeding where the issue is the validity of an assessment issued under the ITA. …

[T]he CRA’s power to issue requirements under section 231.2 of the ITA to obtain information or documents that will be used for the administrative purpose of reassessing a taxpayer is not suspended by the commencement of an investigation.

Neal Armstrong. Summary of Bauer v. Canada, 2018 FCA 62 under s. 231.2(1).