Assessing the Impact of Vavilov on Judicial Review of Tax Matters

Abstract

This paper offers a summary of several judicial reviews of tax matters that have come before the Federal Court of Canada since the Supreme Court of Canada's landmark administrative law decision in Vavilov. This paper sits at the intersection of administrative law and tax law. The paper submits that while Vavilov has so far not significantly changed the hesitation of judges to closely scrutinize the administrative decisions of the Canada Revenue Agency, there are considerable grounds to argue that discretionary decisions made pursuant to s. 220(3.1) of the Income Tax Act constitute “general questions of law of central importance to the legal system” and ought to attract the standard of correctness, rather than reasonableness.

Note: "Reproduced from Thomas Falcone 'Assessing the Impact of Vavilov on Judicial Review of Tax Matters' (2021) 52:4 The Advocates' Quarterly 294, by permission of Thomson Reuters Canada Limited."

Keywords: tax law, administrative law, judicial review, Vavilov