On October 5, 2016, the Tax Court of Canada (the “Court”) released an edited transcript of the oral reasons given on August 26, 2016 for dismissing the appeal from tax assessments in Perry v R. Perry had appealed assessments made on his charitable donations to PanAfrican Canadian Multicultural Center (the “Charity”) from the 2005 and 2006 tax years. The Charity was deregistered in 2007. Perry testified that “he made donations in cash and kind in each year on the recommendation of a tax accountant.” He also presented two charitable receipts as evidence.
The Court stated Perry “appeared to change his version of events as needed, as the evidence progressed. His version appears to be inconsistent with the receipts in a number of respects.” The Court noted that while receipts for the in kind donations were not attached to the paper tax return filed by Perry, the invoice for accounting services related to preparation of the 2006 tax return, was attached to the return. In this regard, this invoice was for $910, but the amount that Perry claimed for charitable donations that year was $9,130, which appeared in parentheses beside the $910 fee on the invoice. The Court concluded that based on the evidence, on a balance of probabilities Perry purchased his receipts from the tax accountant for 10% of the face value.
The appeal also failed because the receipts were found deficient in multiple respects and did not contain information required under the regulations under the Income Tax Act. In this regard, the receipts contained several errors in the name of the charity, an incorrect address and neither receipts listed a description of the in-kind property donated, nor the name and address of the appraiser, among other deficiencies.