Business Law Blog

Introduction

In its recent decision in Minister of National Revenue v. BP Canada Energy Company, the Federal Court of Canada considered the Minister’s ability to compel BP to provide its tax accrual working papers pursuant to the Minister’s inspection powers in subsection 231.1(1) of the Income Tax Act. The decision in favour of the Minister signals a ...

On March 25, 2015, Minister of Finance Michael de Jong introduced Bill 24, the Societies Act, in the British Columbia Legislature. The Bill, which received Royal Assent on May 14, 2015, substantially reforms the current not-for-profit legislative regime. It repeals and replaces the existing Society Act, which governed over 27,000 not-for-profit legal entities in ...

The new BC Limitation Act came into force on June 1, 2013. One of the significant changes was to reduce the basic limitation period for most claims to two years from the date the claim was discovered. As a result, claims discovered on or after June 1, 2013 will become statute-barred in the very immediate future.

While it is always a good idea to take inventory of potential claims ...

The BC Budget (tabled on February 17, 2015) contained no major announcements and no general corporate or personal tax rate changes. Nonetheless, it provides opportunity for personal tax planning for high rate tax payers, and extends useful assistance to early stage businesses in BC.

Personal

The combined top rate of BC tax is 45.8% (16.8% of BC tax + 29% of Federal tax). The ...

It has been quite some time since the Supreme Court of Canada considered the merger provisions contained in the Competition Act. On January 22, 2015, the SCC issued its decision in Tervita v. Canada (Commissioner of Competition), overturning the decision of the Federal Court of Appeal that had required Tervita to divest its interest in Babkirk Landfill Services Inc., a ...

Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) is most widely known as the legislation which, as of July 1, 2014, prohibits the distribution of unsolicited commercial electronic messages. However, the legislation also contains provisions (as outlined in section 8 of CASL) which aim to curtail malicious software such as malware and spyware by requiring express consent for the ...