The Income Tax Act allows taxpayers to appeal or fight an assessment. There is a process and you must follow the rules if you do want to fight the tax man. However, in the last few years, there has been an increasing number of cases with arguments which are, in the words of one judge, “unintelligible, incomprehensible, meaningless, irrelevant and factually hopeless”. And these are causing a backlog in the courts and causing headaches for people with a legitimate case.
If you are filing a Notice of Objection or an appeal, the courts have rejected arguments that the Income Tax Act does not apply to natural persons or human beings. If you earn income, it applies to you. And if you think you can say the system is too complex, the courts have also struck down the argument that the Income Tax Act is “not susceptible of discernment by the average occupant of this land”.
And the courts seem to be getting less patient with these types of cases. On two recent occasions, the taxpayer was ordered to pay part of the government’s legal costs after the judge determined the cases were an abuse of process.
This should not deter people with a legitimate objection or appeal. However, if you think you can argue that the Income Tax Act does not apply to you, the courts will not agree, and trying anyway is a waste of your time and – increasingly – your money.