24 | Tax Disputes
tax advisors to develop standardized tax
products for their clients.
"There is more and more international
pressure on CRA to address issues of international aggressive tax planning more
strictly than in the past," says Du Pont.
"Recent comments by the prime minister were supportive of OECD pressures
on member countries to curtail ATP.
That set the table for the way CRA has
been handling tax disputes recently."
Not only the taxpayer who is seeking
the tax benefit but also the promoters and
tax advisors who are covered by the "hallmarks" must file information returns.
This is causing unease in the legal profession. The Federal Court of Appeal re-
cently upheld CRA's assessment of over
$564,000 in penalties against Ottawa
lawyer Julie Guindon, who was a director for a bogus charity-donation scheme.
Guindon provided a legal opinion vouching for the scheme and signed tax receipts
on the charity's behalf.
"If this is a harbinger of what's to
come, it's more than an attack against
a taxpayer," says Du Pont, "it's also an
attack against the taxpayer's advocate
and profession, which broadens the
scope dramatically.
"A number of professional firms are
contemplating … that one way to react to the reporting requirements is to
swamp the tax authorities with a very
large number of files," he says. "If everything was reported, the reporting would
become meaningless."
International transactions in general,
and transfer pricing activity in particular, have become a major preoccupation
for CRA in light of Canada's growing
globalization. The agency bulked up its
resources to investigate transfer pricing
cases, including hiring economists for the
first time.
"There's a certain circularity in this,"
says Couzin. "The more resources they
put into investigating transfer pricing, the
more controversies they're going to have,
because they're going to find more files to
argue about."
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LEXPERT®Ranked Lawyers
Le Vay, Paul H.
Lederman, Eli
Lefebvre, QC, Wilfrid
Lenczner, QC, Alan J.
Leon, Barry
Leon, LSM, Jeffrey S.
Stockwoods LLP
Lenczner Slaght Royce
Smith Griffin LLP
Norton Rose Fulbright
Canada LLP
Lenczner Slaght Royce
Smith Griffin LLP
Perley-Robertson, Hill &
McDougall LLP/s.r.l.
Bennett Jones LLP
(416) 865-3555
elederman@litigate.com
(514) 847-4440
wilfrid.lefebvre@
nortonrosefulbright.com
(416) 865-3090
alenczner@litigate.com
(613) 566-2843
bleon@perlaw.ca
Widely acknowledged
as one of Canada's
leading litigators, Mr.
Lenczner applies his
advocacy skills to yield
precedent-setting
decisions in many areas
of civil litigation. He
appears regularly before
courts at all levels.
Mr. Leon acts as counsel,
arbitrator and mediator
on international
and Canadian cases
involving a wide range
of industries including
financial services,
natural resources,
energy, technology,
IP, manufacturing,
construction and
consumer goods.
(416) 593-2493
paullv@stockwoods.ca
Mr. Le Vay's bilingual
practice focuses on
securities, corporate,
commercial and
professional negligence
and discipline. He is a
Fellow of the American
College of Trial Lawyers,
President of AJEFO and
a contributing editor to
two law journals.
Mr. Lederman's practice
covers a broad range
of complex commercial
litigation matters,
including securities
law, class actions,
commercial contracts,
oppression and other
shareholder litigation.
Mr. Lefebvre practises
in the area of income
tax, mainly tax
dispute resolution.
He appears before tax
authorities, courts and
administrative tribunals.
He was in charge of tax
litigation for the federal
government.
(416) 777-7472
leonj@bennettjones.com
Mr. Leon provides
strategic advice
and acts in business
disputes before courts
and arbitral tribunals:
commercial, corporate,
securities, product
liability, professional
negligence and class
proceedings. He is an
ACTL Regent and
IATL Director.
