Section 166.1

Woods J found that a letter from the taxpayer to CRA, indicating that his assessments were being appealed, that he was working with his accountant, and that he would keep them informed, could not reasonably be construed as an application for an extension of time.

After the normal reassessment period for assessing its 2002 to 2005 taxation years had passed, the taxpayer requested the Minister to reassess those years to allow capital cost allowance for its pipelines on the basis they were Class 6 rather than Class 1 assets. In denying the taxpayer's application for an extension of the time to file notices of objection for those years, D'Auray J stated (at para. 21):

[T]he Minister does not have to accept or act upon an amended return and reassess a taxpayer.

Little J. granted the taxpayer's s. 166.1 application. The taxpayer had filed a notice of objection within the ordinary objection period, and did not file her objection within that period only because she had been misled by a CRA Chief of Appeals to believe that she was supposed to wait to be contacted by a CRA officer before proceeding. Moreover CRA had mailed the Taxpayer's notices of reassessment to her former address. In the circumstances, denying the taxpayer's extension would be unconscionable.