Frequently Asked Questions

The Canada Revenue Agency is a federal agency that administers tax laws for the Government of Canada and for most provinces and territories. The CRA is also in charge of various social and economic incentive programs (cheques for HST/GST refunds, "Canada Child Benefit", etc).

See more about the CRA at: canada.ca/revenue-agency

You can try calling them, but from our experience, you'll be waiting on hold for a long time, and they do not give tax advice. Nor is it in their mandate that they act in your best interest; their mandate is to collect as much tax as possible. Furthermore, they will only answer the exact question you ask, and won't fill in any blanks or address your particular context.

For individual income tax enquiries call 1-800-959-8281. For benefit enquiries call 1-800-387-1193. For businesses and self-employed individuals call 1-800-959-5525.

Remember, the CRA does not provide legal advice. If your issue is complicated, we would advise getting proper tax and legal advice. Contact us to set up a consultation.

You can call the telerefund line at the CRA at 1-800-959-1956, or the individual income tax enquiry line at 1-800-959-8281.

You would call the "benefit enquiry" number at 1-800-387-1193. The benefit department provides information on the Canada Child Benefit, GST/HST Credits, child disability benefit, and other related provincial and territorial programs.

When the CRA requests a specific document in regard to a claim, this is not an audit. Rather, since the tax system is based on self-assessment, they are just seeking proof of your claim.

An audit is a deeper examination of your tax return to verify any claims you have on anything on your return, such as the amount of deductions you claimed.

If you are under audit and concerned about any potential issues, contact us for a consultation. It may be the most cost-effective investment you ever make.

The CRA states that you should generally keep all your required records for a period of six years from the end of the last tax year. The Income Tax Act, in section 230(1) and 230(4)(b) states that the records must be kept "until the expiration of six years from the end of the last taxation year to which the records and books of account relate."

The "normal" assessment period is three years for an individual, four years for a corporation. Another three years can be added if the matter involves non-residents of Canada in any way.

However, the normal reassessment period can be extended if the CRA establishes that the taxpayer made a misrepresentation due to negligence, carelessness or willful blindness, or committed any fraud. If the CRA disagrees with you in any way, they will allege you were careless, which is sufficient to open up any year. Effectively, there is no "statute of limitations" on Canadian tax matters.

If you have concerns about the CRA reassessing you for past taxation years, contact us for a consultation.

After you file your tax returns, you will receive a "Notice of Assessment". This notice summarizes how the Canada Revenue Agency calculates your taxes, and describes any amounts they have changed.

Pay attention to the date issued. There are time limitation periods to "object" to a notice of assessment if you disagree.

The Canada Revenue Agency will inform you if they are reassessing your taxes with a "notice of reassessment". If you disagree with the CRA's decision, you have the ability to object, so long as it is within the prescribed time periods.

You can fill out a Notice of Objection, or contact tax professionals like ourselves for help. Contact us to set up a consultation to address your specific situation.

The regular time limit for a notice of objection is a maximum of 90 days from the date of the notice of assessment or reassessment. There are ways to get an extension, however, they are not automatically granted.

Residents with a postal code starting with letters A to P may send their objection to the Eastern Intake Centre (Sudbury Tax Service Office, 1050 Notre-Dame Avenue, Sudbury ON P3A 5C1).

Residents with a postal code starting with the letters R to Y may send their objection to the Western Intake Centre (Vancouver Tax Service Office, 9737 King George Boulevard, PO Box 9070, Station Main, Surrey BC V3T 5W6).

A Voluntary Disclosure gives you the ability to change a tax return you previously filed, or to file a return that you should have filed. Contact us for a consultation to address your specific situation.

We would recommend contacting a professional such as ourselves. Contact us to discuss your situation.

First, and very importantly, do not file another return for that tax year. The CRA instructs that you should wait for your notice of assessment before asking for changes. Generally you can ask for a change to a return for a tax year ending in any of the 10 previous calendar years.

If you have suffered hardship, you can file a Request for Taxpayer Relief. You can also work out a repayment plan with the CRA. You will want to take action or the CRA can penalize you.

We work with various professionals to address these issues in an efficient manner, including setting up payment plans that are right on your facts and circumstances. Contact us for a consultation.

The Canada Revenue Agency may grant relief from penalties or interest if there are extraordinary circumstances that would prevent a taxpayer from meeting their tax obligations. We can assist in determining if this process is likely to be effective for you, and with preparing the documentation so as to optimize your relief.

If you are unable to pay your taxes and the matter is in collections, you may be able to arrange a payment plan with the Canada Revenue Agency. We work with various professionals to address these issues in an efficient manner, if we can intervene relatively early in the process.

Yes. If you owe taxes, the penalty is 5% of your balance owing, plus an additional 1% of your balance owing each month your tax return is late, to a maximum of 12 months.

In the collections process, the CRA has the right to seize your accounts. If the situation has progressed that far, there is often very little that can be done. However, we work with various professionals to address collections issues in an efficient manner, including setting up workable payment plans, if we can intervene relatively early in the process.

A CRA garnishment typically occurs when you have a tax debt and do not have a payment plan with the Canada Revenue Agency. We work with various professionals to address collections issues in an efficient manner, including setting up workable payment plans, if we can intervene relatively early in the process. Contact us for a consultation.

Tax evasion is defined as "the illegal nonpayment or underpayment of tax". There are severe penalties for tax evasion in Canada. Tax evasion is different from "tax avoidance", which utilizes provisions in the Income Tax Act to result in paying less taxes in a legal manner.

Tax fraud is what people normally call tax evasion. It occurs when an individual or business willfully or intentionally falsifies information on tax returns in order to reduce the amount of tax paid.

If you suspect you may be the victim of fraud or have been tricked into giving personal or financial information, contact your local police service. If your social insurance number (SIN) has been stolen, contact Service Canada at 1-800-206-7218.

The Offshore Tax Informant Program was launched as an effort to fight international tax evasion. It allows the Canada Revenue Agency to make financial awards to individuals who provide information related to major international tax noncompliance that leads to the collection of taxes owing. Contact us for more information.

Bankruptcy is a legal process performed by Industry Canada under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, by which you may be discharged from most of your debts. When you file for bankruptcy, the trustee becomes the administrator of your property and assets, and winds up the property by selling all the assets and depositing the funds in trust for the creditors.

It depends on many different factors and issues. We work with various professionals to address these issues in an efficient manner, including determining if bankruptcy or something just shy of it is right for your facts and circumstances. Contact us for a consultation.

According to the CRA, a tax shelter includes either a gifting arrangement or the acquisition of property, where it is represented to the purchaser or donor that the tax benefits and deductions arising from the arrangement will equal or exceed the net costs of entering into the arrangement.

No. Only Canadian registered charities or other qualified donees may issue donation receipts that will allow you to claim a charitable tax credit. The Canada Revenue Agency provides a list of registered charities. Contact us for advice on your specific situation.

Check the CRA website at canada.ca - List of Charities.

Your principal residence can be any of the following types of housing units: a house, a cottage, a condominium, an apartment in an apartment building, an apartment in a duplex, or a trailer, mobile home, or a houseboat. You may have only one. The property must qualify to be a principal residence.

According to the CRA, "A property qualifies as your principal residence for any year if it meets all of the following four conditions:

• It is a housing unit, a leasehold interest in a housing unit, or a share of the capital stock of a co-operative housing corporation you acquire only to get the right to inhabit a housing unit owned by that corporation.
• You own the property alone or jointly with another person.
• You, your current or former spouse or common-law partner, or any of your children lived in it at some time during the year.

You designate the property as your principal residence."

According to the CRA, "A property qualifies as your principal residence for any year if it meets all of the following four conditions:

• It is a housing unit, a leasehold interest in a housing unit, or a share of the capital stock of a co-operative housing corporation you acquire only to get the right to inhabit a housing unit owned by that corporation.
• You own the property alone or jointly with another person.
• You, your current or former spouse or common-law partner, or any of your children lived in it at some time during the year.

You designate the property as your principal residence."

The government of Canada has committed to tightening up these rules and requiring taxpayers to report the sale of their principal residence on their tax returns going forward.

No. We charge a reasonable fee for a consultation. Free consultations are usually worth what you pay for them. See our Fees and Retainers page for details.

Whoa! Specialize? Who said anything about "specializing"?

Unfortunately, "specialize" is a loaded word for Canadian lawyers, especially lawyers called to the bar in Ontario.

You cannot say you "specialize" or are "a specialist" in any type of law unless you have received a certificate of specialization from the Law Society.

Using the word specialize or specialist to describe your practice without such a certificate can get you in serious trouble, maybe not disbarred, but very serious trouble.

So we make no claim to being specialists or specializing in anything, thank you very much! Also, there is no such thing as a certificate of specialization in tax law in Canada so we could not "specialize", even if we wanted to.

When you are called to the bar, every lawyer is presumed to be competent in every area of the law.

Of course, this is clearly not the case. Its as though there were no such thing as Chemical Engineering or mechanical engineering, and there were just "engineers" and all engineers were presumed to be able to do every kind of engineering. No one knows everything, or even that much about anything but their field of law, especially these days. A good lawyer effectively knows his field, but that field is "an inch wide and a mile deep" as they say.

So Dominion Tax Law has "restricted its practice" to Canadian income tax, trusts and estates law, as a means of identifying the types of law that we understand best.

Tax law covers a wide field, including the taxation of corporations, trusts, partnerships and individuals, and, of course, non-residents of Canada who have or could have some interaction with the Canadian tax system.

It basically means that the firm will not take family law cases, criminal law cases, etc., that are not areas with which we are familiar as a practical matter.

There is no such thing as "international tax law" per se. Each country taxes on the basis of its own set of rules. We practice Canadian tax law, but we are very aware of the potential for double taxation in cross-border transactions, and advise accordingly. We have also worked extensively with Canada's tax treaties with various countries and on international transfer pricing matters.

Yes. We can help you determine how to hold your Canadian business in a tax-efficient way, then assist by leveraging our connections across provinces to implement the structure. We help you wrap your head around the concepts first, then work with the appropriate lawyers in each jurisdiction to get everything set up.

We assist clients with federal tax matters in any province of Canada. While we serve clients anywhere in Canada, we have office locations in Toronto and Calgary.

Accountants prepare and file tax returns. Tax lawyers provide legal advice, represent you in disputes with the CRA, and handle complex planning matters. If you have a straightforward filing, an accountant is fine. If you have a dispute, audit, or complex planning need, a tax lawyer is the right choice. See our blog on the topic for more details.