Poirier – Tax Court of Canada considers whether ETA s. 296(2.1) can be used to overcome the 2-year deadline for claiming the NRRP rebate

An individual (Poirier) applied for the new housing rebate on his purchase of a new condo unit even though he had already agreed to lease it out effective the closing date. When this claim was denied, he then applied (shortly before the notice of assessment denying the new housing rebate) for the new residential rental property (NRRP) rebate even though this application was made past the application deadline (being two years from the month of purchase).

Poirier referred to ETA s. 296(2.1), which generally requires CRA to take unclaimed rebates into account when assessing a taxpayer.

Smith J indicated that the jurisprudence was unclear whether s. 296(2.1) could be applied to require CRA to grant an offsetting credit for the NRRP rebate when it assessed Poirier to deny the new housing rebate – so that he did not foreclose the possibility that s. 296(2.1) could thereby overcome the two-year deadline. However, he found that such a use of s. 296(2.1) was precluded in this instance because of s. 296(2.1)(b), which provided that the rebate cannot be provided as a credit against the assessment if it has already been claimed by the taxpayer. Thus, it appears that Poirier might have been better off if he had not claimed the NRRP rebate, and then objected to the assessment denying the hew housing rebate on the basis that it should have been reduced by the NRRP rebate - although, this would still have been an uphill battle.

Neal Armstrong. Summaries of Poirier v. The Queen, 2019 TCC 8 under ETA s. 297(1), s. 254(2)(b), s. 256.2(7)(a), s. 262(1), s. 296(2.1) and Interpretation Act s. 32.