Tax Lawyers: directory of firms

A dispute normally starts with a notice of assessment, reassessment or determination the taxpayer disagrees with. The agency's guide P148 sets the time limits for a notice of objection: corporations have 90 days from the date of the notice, while individuals and graduated rate estates have the later of one year after the filing deadline for the return and 90 days from the date of the notice. Where that window has closed, the guide describes an application for an extension, which must be made as soon as the taxpayer could and no later than one year after the objection deadline passed, and which requires showing that they were unable to object in time or intended to object.

Once the objection is filed, the appeals area reviews it. The same guide states that the Tax Court of Canada has to receive a notice of appeal within 90 days of the date the agency sends its decision, and that a taxpayer may also appeal if no decision has been given within 90 days of the day the objection was filed. The Court has exclusive original jurisdiction over appeals and references under a list of federal statutes that includes the Income Tax Act, Part IX of the Excise Tax Act, the Employment Insurance Act, the Canada Pension Plan, the Old Age Security Act and the Underused Housing Tax Act, among others.

Representation rules differ between the Court's two procedures. Its own frequently asked questions state that in Informal Procedure cases anyone can represent you, including yourself, an accountant, an agent or a lawyer. Under the General Procedure an individual may represent themselves or be represented by a lawyer, while a corporation must be represented by counsel unless it brings a motion to be represented by a director, an officer or another person the Court allows.

Court staff cannot fill the gap. The Court is explicit that the Registry cannot provide legal advice and that questions about how strong a case is are the sort it is not permitted to answer. Because lawyers are licensed provincially — the Federation of Law Societies of Canada is the national association of the 14 law societies mandated to regulate the profession in the public interest — the practical first step is to look the firm up in the register of the law society where it practises.

The clearest difference is privilege. Section 232 of the Income Tax Act defines solicitor-client privilege as the right a person has in the superior court of the province where the matter arises to refuse to disclose an oral or documentary communication on the ground that it passed between the person and the person's lawyer in professional confidence, and it deems a lawyer's accounting record, including any supporting voucher or cheque, not to be such a communication. Because the definition turns on the communication being with a lawyer, sensitive analysis of a position a taxpayer knows could be challenged is often done under a lawyer's retainer.

That does not make an accountant the wrong choice. Most tax work is accounting work: the numbers, the filings and the records that support them. Plenty of disputes are handled from beginning to end by the client's accountant, particularly under the Informal Procedure where the Court allows an accountant to appear. A common arrangement on a serious file is for the lawyer to lead and the accountant to do the computational work, with both scopes written down so nothing falls between them.

Tax files are usually billed hourly against a retainer, because how long a dispute takes depends partly on the agency. Discrete pieces of work are sometimes quoted as a fixed fee: a written opinion, a voluntary disclosure application or the preparation of an objection. Court filing charges, transcripts and any expert evidence are billed as disbursements on top of the fee.

Where both a lawyer and an accountant are engaged, agree in writing who instructs whom, who holds the file and who speaks to the agency. Duplicated work between two advisers is the most avoidable expense on a tax file, and the least noticed until the invoices arrive.

Tax law appears on LokalMatch as a directory. Firms describe their own practice, you make contact yourself, and no request is sold to a firm or passed to anyone else.

We do not verify results, rank firms, or suggest that one is the right answer for a dispute we know nothing about. Confirm the licence in the law society register, and take the deadline question to counsel first, because it is the only part of a tax dispute that cannot be repaired later.