Sowa v. R. – FCA: Appeal of inadequate/bogus tax receipt dismissed from the bench

Sowa v. R. – FCA: Appeal of inadequate/bogus tax receipt dismissed from the bench

http://decisions.fca-caf.gc.ca/fca-caf/decisions/en/item/109147/index.do New Window

Sowa v. Canada (April 21, 2015 – 2015 FCA 103, Nadon, Dawson (author), Boivin JJA).

Précis: This is a decision on an appeal from a Tax Court decision reported as Sowah v. The Queen, 2013 TCC 207 which was blogged earlier on this site. Justice Campbell Miller in the Tax Court found that the charitable tax receipt submitted by Ms. Sowa/Sowah was inadequate in that it did not contain all of the necessary information;  he also did not accept her evidence that she in fact made donations totalling $10,250 in 2006 to Jesus Healing Centre. The Federal Court of Appeal saw no reason to reverse his findings on either point and dismissed the appeal from the bench, with costs.

Decision: The Court of Appeal saw no reason to reverse the findings of the Tax Court:

[5] First, the Judge doubted the truthfulness of the appellant’s claim that she donated $10,250.00. The Judge gave detailed reasons for finding that the appellant had not proven she donated $10,250.00. The appellant has not shown any palpable and overriding error in the Judge’s finding.

[6] Second, the Judge found that the receipt filed with the Minister did not contain all of the required information. Three required elements were missing. Again, the appellant has not shown any palpable and overriding error in the Judge’s findings.

As a result the appeal was dismissed from the bench, with costs.