Law in Quebec

News about Quebec legal developments

Business

  • Supreme Court divided over standard of review for arbitrators

    A teacher’s union can call witnesses from an in camera school board meeting to testify about a dismissal ruled the Supreme Court of Canada divided by the kind of judicial standard of review that should apply to an arbitrator’s decision.

    The ruling opens the door for employees to examine members of a decision-making authority over motives leading to a disciplinary sanction, reaffirms that deference must be shown to arbitrators in order to “preserve the expeditious, effective and specialized dispute settlement method represented by grievance arbitration,” and by the slimmest of margins held that the standard of review applicable to arbitrator’s decisions is not correctness but reasonableness.

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  • New investor state dispute settlement mechanism following Canada – European Union trade agreement

    A new proposed permanent investment court-like system under the free trade agreement between Canada and the European Union that will replace the controversial ad hoc investor-state dispute settlement arbitration system has drawn mixed reaction from international trade and investment lawyers.

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  • Revenue Quebec intends to improve dealings with taxpayers

    An action plan unveiled by Revenue Quebec to improve its dealings with taxpayers after the Quebec ombudsman accused the provincial tax department of becoming more intractable and less respectful is viewed with cautious optimism by business and tax professionals.

    The action plan was ordered by Quebec Finance Minister Carlos Leitão to remedy an “unacceptable situation” following a scathing report by Quebec ombudsman Raymonde Saint-Germain who for the second year in a row found that Revenue Quebec frequently failed to apply the principles of natural justice or fundamental rules of procedural fairness, rigidly interpreted fiscal legislation despite being aware of jurisprudence contrary to its position, and provoked needless court action to resolve tax disputes with taxpayers.

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  • Appeal court orders seized material to be sealed in Uber case

    Nearly six months after 20 Revenue Quebec officials raided the Montreal offices of Uber Canada Inc. as part of a tax investigation, the popular ride-sharing service won a legal battle against the provincial taxman after the Quebec Court of Appeal overturned a lower court ruling and held that the seized evidence must be sealed.

    The succinct 12-page ruling will likely pave the way for more applications for impoundment as the courts and tax authorities grapple with the challenges posed by e-commerce, disruptive business models, and technology, according to tax lawyers.

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  • Revenue Quebec ordered to pay $2.4 million

    Revenue Quebec was ordered to pay $2.4 million, including $1 million in punitive damages, to a Montreal business after the Quebec Court of Appeal found that the provincial fiscal authority abused its powers and acted maliciously and in bad faith.

    In a decision that sternly rebukes the provincial tax authority for abusing its “extraordinary powers,” the appeal court ruling held that Revenue Quebec owes a general duty of care and good faith to taxpayers as well as an “obligation to compensate” taxpayers who were the victims of wrongful conduct, according to tax lawyers.

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  • Quebec government consolidates employment and labour boards

    In a move applauded by business and denounced by labour, the Quebec government has created a new labour, employment and workers’ compensation tribunal and consolidated several employment and labour boards into a single administrative body in a bid to streamline government services and modernize and improve the efficiency of the province’s administrative justice system. (more…)

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  • Revenue Canada investigation highly reprehensible, says court

    A “highly reprehensible” and illegal probe by the Canada Revenue Agency that failed to draw the distinction between a civil tax audit and a criminal tax investigation has put into jeopardy several tax evasion criminal cases involving Quebec construction companies and corruption charges against former federal civil servants, according to tax experts.

    In a precedent-setting ruling that appears to bring more clarity to the leading Supreme Court of Canada decision in R. v. Jarvis , [2002] 3 SCR 757, Court of Quebec Justice Dominique Larochelle held that the evidence produced to charge the owner and three other company officials of a Montreal company, B.T. Céramiques, was obtained illegally because federal tax officials crossed the “Rubicon” and failed to inform the taxpayers that the inquiry had turned into a criminal investigation, thereby breaching their right to freedom from self-incrimination and right to reasonable expectation of privacy guaranteed under s.7 and s.8 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

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  • Ruling clarifies circumstances under which securities can be ordered

    Tobacco companies suffered a second legal setback in less than a month after the Quebec Court of Appeal ordered two cigarette makers to set aside nearly $1 billion in security, the largest ever in the province’s history, to ensure that money is available to pay victims who won a landmark $15.5 billion class action lawsuit earlier this year.

    In a ruling that clarifies the exceptional circumstances under which securities can be ordered, the appeal court ordered Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd. to pay $758 million in seven quarterly instalments and Rothmans, Benson & Hedges Inc. $226 million in six quarterly instalments, beginning in December until next year. If the tobacco manufacturers are successful in having the $15.5 billion judgement overturned on appeal, the security will be returned to them. If not, it will be available for distribution to victims who launched the class action suit. (A motion for security was not sought against JTI-MacDonald Corp. because one of the lawyers became ill).

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  • Quebec accounting firm CEO calls for elimination of small business tax

    The Quebec provincial government should follow Manitoba’s lead and eliminate the business tax for small and medium-sized business with net taxable earnings under $500,000 so long as they invest the amounts saved in employment, innovation, and production, suggested the head of a Montreal accounting firm at a tax conference.

    The latest Quebec budget has put the province in a better position to grow and prosper by gradually lowering the general corporate tax rate but the provincial government should contemplate abolishing income tax for small businesses to stimulate the economy even more, said Emilio Imbriglio, the president and chief executive officer of Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton.

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  • OECD hopes reforms will end era of tax avoidance

    An unprecedented international collaboration on tax reform that recently unveiled sweeping plans to crack down on aggressive tax planning by multinational companies has the potential of becoming the biggest shake-up in international tax rules in nearly a century, according to tax professionals.

    Endorsed by G20 finance ministers and leaders, the ambitious proposals by the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) aims to close loopholes, increase transparency to assist tax authorities in risk assessments, and restrict the use of tax havens to curb many international tax planning strategies. The plan, known as the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project, lists 15 specific actions intended to establish coherent rules for corporate income taxation, prevent tax treaty abuse, tackle the tax challenged posed by the digital economy, and amend the world’s 3,000 bilateral tax treaties through a multilateral instrument.

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  • Tax competition stirs controversy

    Barely a month after the European Commission ruled that Starbucks Corp. and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV benefited from illegal tax deals from the Dutch and Luxembourg governments, cross-border tax avoidance will be the subject of yet more intense scrutiny after European Union lawmakers decided recently to quiz 11 multinational corporations over sweet-heart tax deals with governments.

    Sophisticated tax avoidance schemes, under increasing political scrutiny as the likes of Apple Inc., Google Inc., and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. shift billions of dollars of profits out of higher-tax countries into low or no-tax jurisdictions, comes with a hefty price. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) conservatively estimates that profit shifting costs the world between US$100 billion and $240 billion in lost tax revenues. Another study revealed that the 500 largest U.S. companies hold more than US$2.1 trillion in accumulated profits offshore to avoid U.S. taxes, and would collectively owe approximately US$620 billion in U.S. taxes if they repatriated the funds.

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  • Ombudsman comes down hard on Revenue Quebec

    A blistering report by Quebec ombudsman recently accused Revenue Quebec of becoming more intransigent and less respectful report towards taxpayers, prompting an immediate reaction from the provincial finance minister who ordered the tax department to come up with a “concrete action plan” to remedy the “unacceptable” situation.

    Revenue Quebec “frequently failed” to apply the principles of natural justice or the fundamental rules of procedural fairness while recovering tax dollars, rigidly interpreted fiscal laws which often resulted in needless court action to resolve tax disputes with taxpayers, and “employed inadequate, and even abusive,” auditing methods, according to the latest report by the Protecteur du citoyen, the second year in a row that the taxman was castigated by the ombudsman.

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  • OECD report recommends giving tax authorities access to suspicious transaction reports

    An international think tank is calling for tax administrations to have the fullest possible access to suspicious transaction reports received by financial intelligence units to ensure tax compliance and to tackle serious crimes as tax evasion, bribery, corruption, money laundering and terrorism financing.

    The Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is calling on jurisdictions to provide the legislative framework to allow tax administrations to suspicious transaction reports (STRs) and to ensure that operational structures and procedures are put in place to facilitate the “maximum effectiveness” in the use of STRs.

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  • Controversial report calls for overhaul of Quebec insurance and mutual fund regulatory framework

    A controversial report by the Quebec Ministry of Finance that asserts that the current system governing the distribution of financial products and services in the province needs to be reviewed because it risks becoming inadequate and out-dated has been criticized as being unnecessarily alarmist by financial and legal experts.

    The long-awaited report recommends wholesale changes to the regulatory framework for insurance and mutual funds. Besides boosting consumer protection coverage in the event of fraud, the report proposes a flexible legal framework to enable insurers to offer products online. It also recommends establishing a legislative framework aimed at individuals who are not insurance professionals but who sell insurance products such as travel insurance and vehicle rental insurance. More contentiously, the report calls into question its “cumbersome” oversight system and the existence of two regulatory bodies.

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  • Quebec appeal court imposes duty to investigate on business seeking input tax credits

    Less than a year after the Federal Court of Appeal held that a supplier’s delinquent fiscal conduct is irrelevant to an input tax credit claim, the Quebec Court of Appeal has muddied the legal waters with a controversial decision that affirmed that Quebec business are expected as part of an effort to impede tax evasion to conduct due diligence on suppliers in order to be able to obtain input tax credits.

    In a highly-awaited ruling that startled tax professionals, the appeal court held that business are required to do more than simply confirm the validity of a supplier’s GST/HST registration number and confirm that invoices conform to the current legislation and regulations to qualify for input tax credit (ITC) claims. Business have the added duty to authenticate invoices used to claim ITCs originate from the person that actually performed the service, held the appeal court.

    “This is a very important ruling for the business and tax world because in a way it can change the way businesses operate in Quebec,” remarked Alexandre Dufresne, a tax lawyer and managing partner of Spiegel Sohmer in Montreal. “It’s unfortunate but you hear more and more people saying I am going to bring my operations in other jurisdictions because the administrative burden is just too heavy in Quebec. It’s reached that point.”

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Law in Quebec
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