When an individual or corporation has a received a notice of reassessment, this means that the CRA has gone back and reviewed your income tax returns, and have identified a problem, which may result in you paying additional taxes and penalties.

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The standard CRA reassessment period is three years from the date on your original Notice of Assessment. So, if you received your original Notice of Assessment on June 2017, the CRA has until June 2020 to see if there has been any errors in the filing of those returns. There are provisions of the Income Tax Act that allow the CRA to go back and reassess older years. This typically occurs when the CRA finds that an individual or corporation was negligent or untruthful in filing their returns.

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If you have received a Notice of Reassessment (NORA) there are important deadlines that you must be aware of. A taxpayer has 90 days to file a Notice of Objection with the CRA. If a taxpayer misses this deadline the taxpayer can make an application to apply for an extension of time to file the objection under the Income Tax Act. When applying for an extension, the taxpayer must send the extension application setting out the pertinent facts as to why the original 90-day deadline was missed, alongside a copy of the Notice of Objection.  Keep in mind that an extension is not always granted and must be made within 1 year after the expiration of the 90-day deadline. If the 15 month time period is missed completely, there is no opportunity to refute the Notice of Reassessment and the taxes owing must be paid.

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Once a Notice of Objection is filed with the CRA, it can take some time for an Appeal’s Officer (AO) to be assigned to your case. However, once an AO is assigned to your file, they will request for additional information and documentation to support your filing position. The AO will then review all the information, have discussions with the taxpayer or their legal representative and come to a conclusion. If an appeal is not successful at the objection stage, a notice of confirmation is sent to the Taxpayer. The Taxpayer has 90 days from the notice of confirmation to file an Appeal at the Tax Court. Once an Appeal is filed with the Tax Court, a taxpayers case will then be reviewed by a Justice Lawyer and ultimately a Judge if a conclusion cannot be reached.

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If you have received a Notice of Reassessment which you believe is incorrect, get in touch with our office today.

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