Crown not to appeal the Invesco decision of Campbell J. in the Tax Court

Bill Innes on Current Tax Cases


http://decision.tcc-cci.gc.ca/tcc-cci/decisions/en/item/100158/index.do New Window

During the periods under appeal Invesco and its predecessors charged a basic management fee to mutual funds trusts. Where large investors (“Large Investors”) acquired an interest in the trusts, that fee was reduced in respect of those Large Investors (the amount of the reduction related directly to the size of the investment and could vary between Large Investors). Under the terms of the trusts amounts equal to those fee reductions were paid out by the trusts to the Large Investors concerned. At first blush this may seem somewhat byzantine but in reality it was simply a fair way of allocating the savings to the trusts. The savings arose dollar for dollar from the presence of the Large Investors; sharing that saving among all trust unit holders would mean that the Large Investors did not get what they bargained for and the other trust unit holders would get an undeserved windfall. The GST issue arose from the fact that CRA concluded that the distributions of savings to the Large Investors formed additional consideration payable to Invesco and its predecessors for the provision of management services and was therefore subject to GST in their hands.

Campbell J. in the Tax Court rejected the Crown’s position.

Mr. Tobin and Stuart Svonkin were the successful counsel in the Tax Court. Kudos to Mr. Tobin and his team.