Allanah Smith

The Respondent brought a motion to quash the Appellant's appeal of reassessments for the 2015, 2016, and 2017 taxation years.

The Respondent argued that because the Appellant had previously filed and then discontinued a late-filed appeal concerning the same reassessments, subsection 16.2(2) of the Tax Court of Canada Act deemed the appeal dismissed and extinguished the Appellant's right to appeal.

The Court dismissed the motion, finding that because the previous appeal was late-filed without an extension, the Court lacked jurisdiction over it, and therefore its discontinuance could not extinguish the Appellant's substantive right to dispute the reassessments in a properly instituted subsequent appeal.

The Appellants participated in the Global Learning Gifting Initiative (GLGI) program and claimed charitable donation tax credits for both cash contributions and educational courseware licenses.

The Minister reassessed to deny the credits.

The Appellants conceded the gift-in-kind receipts were invalid but appealed to claim the cash contributions.

The Tax Court of Canada dismissed the appeals, finding that the GLGI program was a single interconnected arrangement designed to enrich participants.

The Court held that the Appellants lacked donative intent when making the cash contributions, and that subsections 248(30) to (32) of the Income Tax Act do not displace the common law requirement for donative intent.

The appellant appealed the Minister's redetermination that she was a shared-custody parent for the purposes of the Canada Child Benefit from January 2019 to June 2021.

The Tax Court of Canada allowed the appeal in part, finding that the appellant was the sole eligible individual for one child for the entire period, and for the other two children for most of the period, except for five specific months where she was a shared-custody parent.