Words and Phrases - "same business"

The taxpayer and his brother in partnership sustained a loss in 1945 from a hardware store as a result of its destruction by fire. The next year, they commenced operating a hardware store in a distant town, and deducted the 1945 loss in computing the partnership income. S. 5(1)(p)(iii) of the IWTA provided that “nothing is deductible in respect of a loss unless the taxpayer carried on the same business in the taxation year as he carried on in the year the loss was sustained.” In finding that this test was satisfied, Mr. Fisher stated (at p. 285):

[I]t could not have been the intention of Parliament, when paragraph (p) was enacted, that when a taxpayer is carrying on exactly the same type of business, he must also carry on his business in exactly the same location, with almost the same clientele, in order to be able to claim a loss under the provisions of the said paragraph. To give effect to the [contrary] contention on behalf of the Minister, it would seem necessary to make an investigation of the clientele who patronized the business and of the proximity of the former business where the loss was incurred to the premises occupied in the operation of a business where profits were realized before permitting the loss to be deductible under the said paragraph (p), and I cannot reach the conclusion that any such consideration was present in the mind of Parliament when the legislation was enacted.