Polubiec – Tax Court of Canada comments on the harshness of the s. 163(1) penalty

A retired investment dealer had, over a number of years, failed to report around 15 items of dividend or other investment income (some of them, somewhat over $10,000), which he claimed resulted from a failure of an investment dealer (“BMONB”) to send him T5 or other reporting slips for those items (although such forms had been received by CRA). In addition, in his 2014 return he had not reported approximately $700,000 which he had withdrawn from his RRSP. He claimed that he had been advised by a BMONB employee that reporting this amount was not required as it had been subject to 30% withholding on such withdrawal.

Sommerfeldt J found that the taxpayer had failed to establish a due diligence defence for any of the above failures, so that it was unnecessary to determine which of these failures were the ones for which there was a need to establish due diligence. However, he went on to provide an obiter invitation to the Minister to reduce the s. 163(1) penalty, noting the magnitude of the penalty in relation to the taxpayer’s current means, and further noting numerous previous judicial statements along lines that the s. 163(1) penalty was “harsh, particularly where source deductions have been withheld” and “can be disproportionate in nature,” and that “the scope of the due-diligence defence is quite limited, as it does not apply to unreasonable mistakes of fact made in good faith, to mistakes of law made in good faith, or to reasonable mistakes of law.”

Neal Armstrong. Summary of Polubiec v. The Queen, 2019 TCC 146 under s. 163(1).