CRA indicates that a purported reassessment that does not change tax payable is not an assessment

A taxpayer whose T2 return had been assessed as filed, later, within the prescribed time limit under s. 37(11), filed a request to amend that return to claim SR&ED expenses. CRA denied the SR&ED claim in its entirety.

Headquarters concluded that if CRA issued a “Notice of Reassessment” showing no changes from the initial Notice of Assessment, this would not provide something to which the taxpayer could validly object pursuant to s. 165(1). In this regard, Headquarters observed that inter alia Clibetre and Orlando indicated that “where requested changes to elements of the taxpayer’s return of income are denied, and there is no change to the tax payable previously assessed … there has been no ‘reassessment’ of tax by the Minister,” and such denial is instead “simply a notification that a reassessment has not been done” (“even if the notification is titled a ‘Notice of Reassessment’.”)

Neal Armstrong. Summary of 28 February 2023 Internal T.I. 2019-0791421I7 under s. 165(1).