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Partner and lead of Torys’ Tax Controversy and Litigation
practiceMartha MacDonaldauthored the lead article in
the March 2024 issue of Canadian Tax Foundation’s Perspectives
on Tax Law and Policy newsletter.
In the article titled “GAAR in 2024 and Beyond”, Martha explored
the general anti-avoidance rule (GAAR) and takes a look at its
history, recent developments and what you can expect to see in its
future.
An excerpt from the article is below.
It’s not unusual for Parliament, before reviewing and
significantly amending a new legislative regime, to give the courts
some time to interpret the regime. GAAR has just arrived at that
point.
Following GAAR’s enactment in the late 1980s, it took
several years for the first GAAR cases to be decided, and over 15
years passed before the first SCC GAAR case (Canada Trustco
Mortgage Co. v. Canada, 2005 SCC 54). To date, almost 500
judicial decisions have considered GAAR, including six SCC
decisions that have pronounced on it. Although the Crown won about
half of these cases (including more than half of the SCC cases),
the government expressed concern in its 2022 consultation paper
(Modernizing and Strengthening the General Anti-Avoidance Rule)
that GAAR required changes “so that it better meets its
objective of preventing abusive tax avoidance”.
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about your specific circumstances.
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