Appeals vs. Taxpayer Relief

Part of being an accountant is making sure you are up to date on new accounting practices and understanding new tax changes.  Another part is staying up to date on how the CRA operates.  Yes even I am continually learning things.

Recently I learned that there is only so much that appeals can do.  I am now going to share what I learned with you.  Everybody know what time it is?  Yup, “it’s story time!”

I recently sent in an appeal for a client who was reassessed by the CRA.  In short what happened is his T-4 slips were amended almost two years after the taxes for the respective years were filed.  The client was then charged interest for two years on the unpaid balance.  Kind of unfair when things were amended by the CRA or employer two years after the fact.  Anyway I appealed.

I just spoke with the appeals officer who informed me that appeals can’t change the interest because technically the assessment of interest is correct under the Income Tax Act.  What the appeals officer did tell me was that I should submit a request for taxpayer relief.

So that’s what I have done.  Now we wait.  The questions will be “how long do we wait?”, and “Will I get the answer I want?”.

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