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July 28, 2026
Part one of this series covered Canada’s platform-reporting regime under Part XX of the Income Tax Act. Part two is a practitioner’s guide that will discuss business versus property income, employment versus independent contractor status, non-cash compensation valuation, and GST/HST registration rules for Canada’s digital economy.
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July 24, 2026
For most of the past decade, the dominant compliance problem in Canada’s digital economy was one of invisibility. Platform income — whether earned through Airbnb, Uber, Etsy, YouTube, or a subscription content service — was self-reported, difficult for the Canada Revenue Agency to verify independently, and largely invisible to the agency’s audit selection algorithms unless the taxpayer’s bank deposits or lifestyle flagged a discrepancy. That environment has changed.
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July 24, 2026
This is the scenario: John and Jane each purchase a real property in Ontario in 2003, to which they take title in their names alone. John purchases a residential property for $2,000,000 (“John’s property”) and Jane purchases a cottage property for $1,000,000 (“Jane’s property”). In 2006, John and Jane become common law spouses and go back and forth between living at their respective properties — typically John’s during the fall and winter months and Jane’s during the spring and summer months. John and Jane never enter into any domestic agreement. Both were previously married and have children from prior marriages, who are their primary beneficiaries and not each other.
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July 23, 2026
Ottawa is seeking public comments on a package of draft tax proposals, including an amendment that would reinstate accelerated capital cost allowances for eligible liquefied natural gas (LNG) equipment and related buildings at low-carbon LNG facilities.
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July 22, 2026
Nine provinces have agreed to a deal on interprovincial sales of alcohol they say will remove trade barriers and improve customer choice. The premiers of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador signed the “landmark” agreement July 21 that will allow direct-to-consumer (DTC) sales of alcoholic beverages between individual jurisdictions for personal use.
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July 21, 2026
Canada is set to intensify trade talks with the United States after the U.S. announced plans to impose additional 50 per cent tariffs on a significant number of Canadian goods, Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a statement issued July 20.
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July 21, 2026
This is an update to our previous article, “GST/HST/QST and trailing commissions: Key changes in the mutual fund industry.” In May 2026, the CRA issued an updated version of Notice 344 that replaces the February 2026 version.
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July 20, 2026
Canada has become very good at recruiting skilled immigrants. It has not become nearly as good at rewarding them. That distinction matters. A country that selects engineers, physicians, software developers, researchers, finance professionals and entrepreneurs on the promise of economic opportunity — but then delivers lower wages, credential barriers, punishing housing costs and weaker career mobility — should not be surprised when some of those same people leave.
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July 20, 2026
An owner-manager’s decision to sell their business can represent the culmination of years of hard work, sacrifice and commitment. However, the path from ultimately deciding to sell and closing the deal is rarely straightforward.
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July 16, 2026
Early in my career, “Wallace damages” were all the rage. After the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in Wallace v. United Grain Growers (c.o.b. Public Press), [1997] 3 S.C.R. 701, a common law notice period could be extended to punish an employer’s bad faith in the manner of dismissal, and it seemed that every wrongful dismissal claim included a “Wallace bump.”
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July 15, 2026
Part one of this series (see below for link) traced the procedural history behind Forrest v. The King, 2026 TCC 121, and the Tax Court’s conclusion that only the fourth of four contradictory notices of reassessment remained capable of supporting an appeal, and that a notice of appeal against it was properly before the court.
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July 15, 2026
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) has given the federal government an A+ in its 2026 State of Internal Trade: Canada’s Interprovincial Cooperation Report Card. While the CFIB applauded the “significant progress” made by the feds, the organization cautioned that “these high scores reflect commitments more than actual progress felt on the ground.”
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July 14, 2026
The formal Canada–United States–Mexico Agreement (CUSMA /USMCA) joint review process officially started on July 1, 2026. Leading up to this date, governments accepted public comments and held hearings through late 2025, and the United States and Mexico officially launched bilateral preparatory discussions on March 5, 2026.
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July 14, 2026
The Tax Court of Canada’s recent decision in Forrest v. The King, 2026 TCC 121 gives tax lawyers a detailed map of what happens when the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) reassesses the same taxation year four times, contradicting itself twice along the way, and then argues that the taxpayer has no right to appeal the last word.
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July 13, 2026
The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has spent considerable effort focusing on taxing GST/HST on home sales. If a taxpayer is considered to be a “builder” as defined in subsection 123(1) of the Excise Tax Act, R.S.C., 1985, c. E-15 (ETA), the respective income is treated as if on account of business and not capital. Therefore, GST/HST obligations apply. In Ontario, this means a taxpayer must charge 13 per cent GST/HST on the sale price and remit this amount to the federal government.
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July 10, 2026
Many federally appointed trial judges report stress from excessive workloads, limited control over their time in the workplace and too few support resources, according to a new national survey of judges’ physical and psychological health. On July 9, the Canadian Judicial Council (CJC) reported on extensive research commissioned from the Université de Sherbrooke between 2024 and 2026 by the council of 44 chief and associate chief justices.
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July 08, 2026
Arbitrage betting, often described as “sure betting” or “arb betting,” has gained increasing prominence in Canada following the expansion of regulated single-event sports betting and the rapid growth of offshore and blockchain-based prediction markets.
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July 07, 2026
When a court awards damages in lieu of reasonable notice, should the award include vacation pay that would have accrued over the notice period?
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July 07, 2026
The federal government has announced the launch of online and in-person consultations for Budget 2026 ahead of its delivery this fall.
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July 07, 2026
The King Charles tax disclosure creates no legal obligation in Canada and establishes no precedent that Canadian courts are required to follow. What it does is illustrate — at the level of a head of state — a principle that is deeply embedded in Canadian tax law and frequently litigated: that those who administer the tax system, and those who are subject to it, operate within a framework governed by the rule of law, institutional transparency and procedural fairness.
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July 06, 2026
Prime Minister Mark Carney has appointed new leaders to head two of Canada’s major trial courts. On July 6, Justice Alan Diner was appointed chief justice of the Federal Court, the national superior trial court that decides disputes in the federal domain. He succeeds Paul Crampton, who retired from the post Oct. 31, 2025.
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July 06, 2026
The Federal Court has declined to make findings of fact in a dispute over the Canada Revenue Agency’s (CRA) denial of LG Electronics Canada Inc.’s request for interest relief tied to a tax reassessment, finding that there were no circumstances warranting a departure from the usual remedy of sending the matter back for redetermination.
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July 03, 2026
The chair of the advisory board that recommended ex-Manitoba Court of King’s Bench Chief Justice Glenn Joyal and one other unnamed jurist for appointment to the Supreme Court of Canada defended the board’s decision not to shortlist three to five names, which was contrary to the mandate from Prime Minister Mark Carney.
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July 03, 2026
This article addresses the enforcement architecture through which the CRA will identify and pursue non-compliance, the cross-border and non-resident tax obligations that arise from the World Cup’s international character, and the remediation pathways available to tax clients who did not report correctly, and what Canadian tax lawyers and accountants need to know before advising them on those pathways.
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July 02, 2026
Beyond short-term rental income, the 2026 FIFA World Cup will generate a wide variety of income-earning opportunities for Canadian residents, sports bettors, ticket resellers, parking space operators, food vendors, content creators, and transportation providers among them.