http://decisions.fca-caf.gc.ca/fca-caf/decisions/en/item/127682/index.do
Mason v. Canada (January 19, 2016 – 2016 FCA 15, Nöel C.J., Near (author), Scott JJ. A.).
Précis: The Tax Court decision in Mason was blogged previously on this site. Mr. Mason was an accountant. He argued that the income from his accounting practice was owned by trusts or corporations (the evidence was unclear). He lost in the Tax Court. The Federal Court of Appeal found no reversible error and dismissed his appeal from the bench with costs.
Decision: The Court’s decision was quite pithy:
[2] In support of his appeal, the appellant is effectively asking this Court to re-weigh the evidence which was before the Tax Court and reach a different conclusion. This is not the Court’s role. The Tax Court considered the appellant’s arguments raised with respect to how he structured his affairs and with respect to whether the income was earned by him personally or by one or more of his various corporate entities. In addition, the Tax Court judge addressed the issue raised by the appellant with respect to the amount of income earned and with respect to expenses related to the income earned.
[3] The appellant also contends that years 2003 and 2004 were assessed beyond the three year reassessment period. In this respect we agree with the respondent that the record supports the view that the appellant acted with carelessness in filing his returns for those years with the result that the normal reassessment period does not apply (subsection 152(4) of the ITA). The conclusions reached by the Tax Court judge were amply supported by the evidence. In our view, the appellant has not identified a reviewable error in the Tax Court’s decision.
The appeal was dismissed, with costs, from the bench.