Court Ordered Reassessments, Preconditions, and Limitation Periods

Abrametz v The Queen, 2014 TCC 227

There were a number of issues before the Court, and was brought under Rule 53 and Rule 58 of the Tax Court of Canada Rules (General Procedure).  In short, the TCC determined that on a court ordered reassessment, as a result of an appeal, the Minister need not meet the statutory pre-conditions for issuing a reassessment if the court did not vacate the original assessment, and the pre-conditions were met at the time of the original reassessment (prior to the Notice of Objection and Appeals).  In the Court’s own words:

The Court makes the following determinations of law:

(a)       it is not necessary for the Minister of National Revenue to meet the pre-conditions set out in subsection 323(2) of the Excise Tax Act before issuing a court ordered reassessment under subsection 323(4);

(b)      subsection 323(4) causes paragraph 298(3)(a) of the Excise Tax Act to apply to prevent the two year statute-barred period in subsection 323(5) from applying to a court ordered reassessment issued under subsection 323(4); and

(c)       the Court does not have jurisdiction to consider whether the amount for which a director is liable under subsection 323(1) has been reduced as a result of the underlying corporation’s GST obligations being paid, in full or in part, by that director or any other person, directly or indirectly, by any means whatsoever at any time whatsoever.

– Sas Ansari, JD LLM PhD (exp)

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