http://decision.tcc-cci.gc.ca/tcc-cci/decisions/en/item/111498/index.do
Esmezyan v. The Queen (August 26, 2015 – 2015 TCC 213, Bédard D.J.).
Précis: The taxpayer applied to extend the time to file a notice of objection to a GST assessment. The notice of assessment was sent by registered mail and signed for by his wife. He and his wife were separated and he claimed she never passed on the notice of assessment. The Court did not accept his evidence and noted that he failed to call material evidence to support his claim for an extension. As a result the application was dismissed.
Decision: The taxpayer did not file a GST notice of objection within the 90 period allowed. He then filed an application with the Minister for an extension of the time to file a notice of objection. That application was denied and he appealed to the Tax Court for an extension. He claimed that he was not aware of the assessment because his wife never gave him the correspondence:
The address indicated on the notice of assessment is 154 Rue Jean-Paul-Lemieux in Notre-Dame-de-l’Île-Perrot, which was the last known address of the applicant at the time that the assessment was made (the “address”).
[4] Indeed, the applicant did not report any change of address before September 27, 2013.
[5] The assessment was sent to the address by registered mail through Canada Post.
[6] On October 2, 2013, the acknowledgement of receipt of the assessment was signed by the applicant’s wife. It should be noted that the evidence shows that the applicant was no longer living with his wife at that time as they were in the midst of divorce proceedings.
…
The applicant essentially submits that he was unable, within the time allowed for filing a notice of objection (which expired on December 26, 2013), to act or to give a mandate to act in his name since he only became aware of the assessment in May 2014, as his wife had not given him the notice of assessment. Furthermore, he argues that he acted diligently to file with the Minister an application for an extension of time as soon as he was aware of the assessment.
Not to put too fine a point on it the Court simply did not accept the taxpayer’s evidence:
As mentioned above, non-receipt of a notice of assessment cannot be used as grounds for an extension of time. Regardless, the applicant has not satisfied me that he did not receive the notice of assessment and the letter, given his testimony that his wife had nonetheless given him the correspondence from the Minister regarding the corporations of which he was a director and for whose tax liabilities he is being held responsible under the assessment. Only the testimony of his wife and the filing in evidence of the letter that was the basis of his telephone conversation with Mr. Lamond could have made it possible to dispel my doubts about the applicant’s credibility. The applicant could have produced that evidence, but he did not do so. I infer from this that such evidence would have been unfavourable to him.
As a result the application was dismissed.