The Process of Tax Objection
Posted by support2 March 04 2014
Tagged Under : canada tax appeal, cra tax dispute, Filing tax objection
Tax objection is a situation where the taxpayer objects with a reassessment or audit of the CRA and wished CRA to look into the objection and undo what was wrong. Since in Canada self reporting tax system works in such way that every individual is expected to report his own tax returns and is required to do so with complete honesty and accuracy. When the tax return system is left with Canadian taxpayers, obviously the governing tax authority the CRA from time to time also assess on whether the required honesty is being practiced. Some times CRA may disagree with the tax returns of an individual, company or other entity and decide to assess the tax returns itself. This is when CRA issues an assessment notice to the taxpayer after the filing of returns by him.
In such a case CRA often asks for more information to certify whether the filed returns are accurate. If these evidences satisfy the CRA, the case is closed, however if not, CRA will issue a notice and will audit your taxes itself which can lead to tax objection scenario. This will happen after 30 days of issuing the notice. Hiring help of a tax expert at this point is strongly suggested and even though you should hire a tax expert before filing of returns to avoid any such happening however services of an expert professional who has more knowledge regarding the matter is very helpful at this point.
The auditor of CRA can propose a reassessment of all your taxed belongings and based on the information create a new tax return for you based on which you will be paying your tax. Now this is where the case of tax objection arises. The reassessment done by the CRA auditor may have faults according to you and you are given the right to object to them however you will be required to present sufficient proof for your claim.
You can file an objection notice as soon as you find you disagree with something in the reassessment report. Before filing a tax objection however it is best you hire a tax expert who will guide through the objection process and also help in assessing whether or not filing tax objection is a good idea in the first place. In a tax objection the burden of proving yourself in purely upon the objector and if you fail to provide all relevant evidence you can lose the case ending up in paying a hefty amount in form of taxes payable.
When filing a tax objection what counts most is the drafting of the objection notice in a persuasive and comprehensive manner. This job is best done by a tax expert who is aware of how to deal such a situation. After sometime an appeal officer will review your objection notice and ask for any further submissions if required. The appeal officer can announce a reassessment, vary it or declare the initial one to be just. In case your tax objection is denied you can move to the tax court of Canada and wait for a decision. In order to stop things from being bad to worse, hiring a tax expert always pays off.
Summary
Following a tax objection process is a tedious task and as the burden lies completely on the objector any case that is not backed by firm evidences and documents will only result in waste of time and paying of hefty tax amounts. Filing tax objection or tax dispute under supervision of an experienced tax professional will certainly gets better results.