A Busload of Fiscal Arbitrators takes on the Tax Court

[Burnaby49]

A bunch of Fiscal Arbitrator suckers have decided to lawyer up! The link below is to the Tax Court of Canada. It gives a listing of actions to date in a combined appeal of 54 FA appellants (actually a few less some have multiple appeals). All are from Winnipeg and all are represented by Jeff Pniowsky of Thompson Dorfman Sweatman LLP. As I read it they are not appealing their assessments, the disallowance of the fake business deductions that Fiscal Arbitrators was flogging to any fool who believed that you could just enter made-up numbers on your income tax return and get out of paying taxes. It looks like they are only appealing the gross negligence penalty. All of the Fiscal Arbitrator cases I reviewed (links below) included the penalty and all lost.

Self-representation is a very poor idea in this venue so it seems a group of them got together and retained a lawyer to represent them. Actually a good idea. They have no chance, regardless of representation, of winning an appeal of the assessments since the claimed deductions are totally fictitious. However they might, with legal help, get some relief in respect to the penalties. This sort of combined appeal is not unusual in Tax Court when a group of identical-fact reassessments are appealed. If any individual taxpayer wins/loses all the rest also win/lose since their assessments are exactly the same. So it makes sense to combine resources and put all the eggs in one basket. The prior FA suckers I reported on were not particularly affluent individuals so they probably could not, individually, afford to retain legal services. As a bonus they can charter a bus to attend the hearing.

A plus for the Tax Court too, far more administratively efficient. As you can see from the excerpt below having a lawyer dealing with the Tax Court rather a neophyte at least gets things moving along briskly;

History
Date Action
11-MAR-14 Notice of Appeal
19-MAR-14 Filing Fee Received
21-MAR-14 Filing fee paid
21-MAR-14 Tariff Receipt - Form
15-APR-14 Certificate of Service
30-APR-14 Miscellaneous
13-MAY-14 Conference Call letter sent
13-MAY-14 Letter re: Name of Justice Representative
13-MAY-14 Conference Call - memo
23-MAY-14 Position/Response from appellant
02-JUN-14 Consent for Reply extension
02-JUN-14 Miscellaneous - Letter Sent
03-JUN-14 Interim Order
04-JUN-14 Pending Appeal
11-JUN-14 Interim Order sent
19-JUN-14 Consent for Reply extension

http://cas-ncr-nter03.cas-satj.gc.ca/tc ... _id=156009

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