What Is a Notice of Appeal to the Tax Court of Canada and How Is It Different From an Objection?
This answer covers Canadian federal tax law, which applies in every province.
A notice of appeal takes your dispute to the Tax Court of Canada after the CRA confirms or reassesses, or, for income tax, after 90 days with no decision on your objection (180 days for GST/HST). The objection stage is a review by the CRA itself, where the Minister must reconsider the assessment and vacate, confirm, vary or reassess it. The Tax Court is the next step if you still disagree.
If the CRA disagrees with your objection, it sends a Notice of Confirmation or a reassessment, and you can then appeal to the Tax Court within 90 days. After you have served an objection, you can appeal a resulting reassessment without serving a new notice of objection. If you miss the 90 days, you can apply to the Court for an extension, and the CRA states you have one year and 90 days from the confirmation or reassessment date to apply.
The Tax Court has Informal and General procedures. Informal appeals have no filing fee, while General Procedure appeals have a fee based on the amount in dispute. Appeals can be filed by mail, fax, delivery or the Court's electronic filing. Which procedure fits depends on your case, so a lawyer can help you choose.
Key takeaways
- A notice of appeal takes your dispute to the Tax Court of Canada after the Minister has confirmed or reassessed, or once 90 days pass after an income tax objection with no decision (180 days for GST/HST), while an objection is a written notice asking the CRA to reconsider an assessment.
- After a Notice of Confirmation or a reassessment, you can appeal to the Tax Court within 90 days.
- If you already served an objection, you can appeal the resulting reassessment without serving a new notice of objection.
- The Tax Court has an Informal procedure with no filing fee and a General Procedure with a fee based on the amount in dispute.