Expertise

Practice Profile

Corporate Tax

The lawyers in our Tax Group bring knowledge, insight and innovation to both the technical and practical aspects of taxation to provide effective advice on domestic and international tax planning, structuring and compliance. Our experience includes acting as special counsel on discrete complex matters as well as serving as part of a larger team on business transactions, and advising on tax policy and tax legislation. We provide assertive representation during audits and administrative appeals, in making voluntary disclosures of non-compliance, and in tax litigation matters at all levels of court.

The Group assists a diverse range of local, national and international clients, including large public entities, private corporations, financial institutions, private equity funds, professional service firms, governments and their agencies, foreign investors in Canada and Canadian companies expanding abroad. Our clients may seek advice on tax matters alone, or integrated with regular commercial advice.

Our Tax lawyers work closely with members of our Business Law Group, Financial Services, Natural Resources and Insolvency law groups to assist clients in planning for and structuring mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, reorganizations, and inbound and outbound investment. We also offer a broad range of tax advice with respect to securities matters, including the structure of security offerings and preparation of tax opinions for prospectuses and offering memoranda. More recently we have been involved in advising many of our income fund and REIT clients on the corporate conversion process.

We have lawyers experienced in sales and commodity tax, including the federal Goods and Services Tax (“GST”), the Harmonized Sales Tax (“HST”), provincial sales tax (“PST”), the Québec Sales Tax (“QST”) and customs duties and tariff classifications. From start to finish, we assist large and small businesses minimize the amount of taxes they pay, and when necessary, recover overpaid taxes.

Our tax litigators have represented clients at all court levels on various corporate tax matters, including director’s liability, professional negligence claims, appeals of income tax and sales tax reassessments.

Members of our group are recognized as leading practitioners by the International Who’s Who of Corporate Tax Lawyers and Chambers Global. Members of our group have also been sought out by the Department of National Revenue and the Department of Finance for contributions to the development of tax policy and tax legislation.