Stewart - Tax Court of Canada finds that partners were not necessarily precluded under the s. 152(1.7) “binding” rule from arguing that a partnership determination of loss was statute-barred

CRA issued Notices of Determination to deny losses of a limited partnership (TSI). Both TSI and its partners launched appeals to the Tax Court. However, TSI then filed a Notice of Discontinuance, which resulted in its appeal being deemed by s. 16.2(2) of the Tax Court of Canada Act to have been dismissed. The individual partners continued with their appeals, arguing that the Notices of Determination had been statute-barred.

D’Auray J first indicated that there was potential merit in the individuals’ argument that s. 152(1.7), which provides that a notice of determination is binding on the partners respecting their income, taxes and amounts refundable, did not preclude them from arguing that the Notices of Determination were invalid on procedural grounds. However, that success did not help the individuals, as she agreed with the Crown that their continuing with their appeals was an abuse of process. A previous case had found that generally “dismissal under section 16.2 of the TCC Act carries the same effect as a judgment of dismissal by the Court” – and the action which thus had constructively been decided against them was one in which they could have, but failed to, raise their statute-barring arguments.

Neal Armstrong. Summaries of Stewart v. The Queen, 2018 TCC 75 under s. 152(1.7) and General Concepts – Abuse of Process.