An accountant applied a commonly used tax strategy for a taxpayer. One condition of this strategy is that it cannot be used BEFORE the end of the year. The accountant missed that one point, and because of this mistake, the CRA assessed a tax of almost $180,000. The CRA would not allow the accountant to fix this mistake so it went to court.
The judge determined there was no wrong doing other than the mistake of applying the strategy a bit too soon. He concluded that allowing the problem to be fixed was fairer than the CRA’s proposed alternatives.