CRA's audit powers have entered a new paradigm.
Since Bill C-32 received Royal Assent on December 15, 2022, CRA's information-gathering powers have broadened. The changes made to section 231.1 of the Income Tax Act (Canada) are the undoing of the 1986 amendments that sought to provide clear limits to CRA's enforcement powers. The legislative changes that became law with Bill C-32 were released as draft legislation on February 2022, and Bill C-32 includes the draft legislation unamended.
Andrew and I co-wrote and presented the following paper, which we should have named "Impact of Bill C-32 - CRA's Audit Authority." Bill C-32 was tabled on November 4, 2022, and we presented our paper at the Atlantic Provinces Tax Conference [2022] on November 5, 2022. This paper also includes the Miller decision that the Federal Court of Appeal released on November 2, 2022 (decision made on October 31, 2022). We included a review of the Miller decision because of its relationship to the Cameco decision.
I have attached the Table of Contents and Introduction page of our paper. We wrote this paper like a story with lots of summaries.
Andrew and I invite you to read the Table of Contents and Introduction page attached and if you would like to read the paper to understand Unnamed Persons Requirements (section 231.2), understand the scope of these new broad powers, the impact on tax practitioners and taxpayers, and CRA's current projects and initiatives, please get in touch with us. The importance of solicitor-client privilege being extended to accountants' work is also included in this paper – the implementation of which is one of my areas of work.
We can give you a copy of this conference paper. You can also find it on TaxFind.
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