In any case we have another pair of idiots who tried to apply Fiscal Arbitrator magic (aka totally fake tax deductions) and went whining to the Tax Court when the nasty CRA hit them with gross negligence penalties. They had a pretty strong case; when preparing their income tax returns they had relied on the expertise and knowledge of an actual tax expert; Roger. Unfortunately they were unable to give any more information on their expert than his first name, making it hard for the court to judge his expertise. The court was somewhat skeptical of the legitimacy of the claimed deductions;[2] Although the name "fiscal arbitrator" did not come up at the hearing these cases look a lot like cases that have been referred to as "fiscal arbitrator" cases.
The judge felt that letting let Roger do whatever he wanted with their tax returns without questioning, or even reading their returns before filing, indicated some carelessness on their part.3] The reassessments disallowed substantial deductions claimed on line 232, "Other deductions". In the tax return of each party after the word"specify" on the preprinted form, the words "DUE TO ANIMATOR AS AGENT" were added to the form.
[4] In the case of Rasper, the deduction claimed was $87,109.66. In the case of Peace, the amount claimed was $50,698.79.
[5] As a result of these deductions on line 232, the appellants filed returns claiming that they were not liable to any federal or Ontario income tax whatsoever and claiming a refund of all tax withheld.
[6] In support of this claim at Tab 1 of Exhibits R-1 and R-2, respectively, are documents entitled "Notice of Usage" (at page 4) and "Annual Statement for Agent's Activities" (at page 5).
[7] These documents are meaningless. For example, in the case of Rasper, Rasper is both the agent and the animator and, based on nonsensical calculations, the "Annual Statement for Agent's Activities" concludes that Rasper, as animator, owes Rasper, as agent, $87,109.66. This amount of $87,109.66 is then claimed on line 232.
[8] There is absolutely no doubt that the appellants are not entitled to these deductions.
The decision is very short. The Tax Court is running these Fiscal Arbitrator cases through the system like an assembly line. Then again the claims, and the rationalle for them, are so preposterous that no great depth of analysis is required to toss them out.[23] Just to give some examples, on the "Annual Statement for Agent's Activities" at the top, I find it impossible to accept that they would not have had doubts about the description of the service provided as "Agent as a Transmitting Utility" or that they would not have had doubts about the existence of the contract referred to. More generally, I cannot believe that, if they made any effort to comprehend their returns, they would not have questioned this whole bizarre relationship where they are apparently dealing with themselves as both animator and agent.
[24] Finally, another example of a red flag is the wording added to the signature page of the tax returns, just to the right of the signature, which says:
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED WITHOUT PREJUDICE UCC 1-308, NON ASSUMP SIT CONTRACT, WITHOUT COMPREHENSION
Done for the Agent by the Animator
[25] In their circumstances, it is hard to understand how the appellants came to sign their returns. The complete failure to ask any questions or review the returns, when only a little effort would have raised several red flags, clearly shows wilful blindness.
[26] Accordingly, the Minister's reassessments are correct and the appeals will be dismissed.
http://decision.tcc-cci.gc.ca/tcc-cci/d ... 8/index.do