Words and Phrases - "before"

Cash dividends paid by a corporation ("Old VIH") to its parent (the taxpayer) in February 1993 came out of safe income of Old VIH given that the computation of Old VIH's safe income included significant income that it had earned after its last fiscal year end (March 31, 1992) and before the date of payment of the dividends. Sharlow J.A. stated (at p. 5101) that

"It does no violence to the language of subsection 55(2) to interpret the phrase 'before the commencement of the series of transactions' to mean 'immediately before the commencement of the series of transactions', rather than 'as of the end of the fiscal year ending before the commencement of the series of transactions', as the Crown contends."

In addition, it was open to the trial judge (Woods J, as she then was) to find that a stock dividend paid shortly after the payment of the cash dividends, and which reduced the capital gain on a subsequent sale of the shares Old VIH by approximately $45,000, did not result in a significant reduction of the capital gain realized on such sale in the context of transactions which involved dividends (preponderantly, cash dividends) totaling over $1.7 million.