Principal Issues: Multiple questions revolving around the same issue: whether the Canada Revenue Agency’s (CRA) practice to disallow expenses incurred on behalf of a surrogate mother / person (e.g., procedures relating to in-vitro fertilization (IVF)) is discriminatory.
Position: No. The CRA is applying the wording in subsection 118.2(2.2), which requires that an amount be paid for the purpose of a patient conceiving a child, as the term “patient” is defined in paragraph 118.2(2)(a), for the purpose of subsection 118.2(2).
Reasons: The Tax Court of Canada has determined in its decision in Zanatta v The Queen, 2014 TCC 293, that paragraph 118.2(2)(a) of the Act does not infringe on section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, because surrogacy-related fees are consistently non-deductible for all taxpayers.
