Canada Tax Court Nixes Hearings, Offers Flexibility During Virus

Canada’s tax court has canceled all hearings for the month of May and provided new guidance on how it plans to handle filing deadlines during the coronavirus outbreak.

All of the Tax Court of Canada sittings and conference calls scheduled between May 4 and May 29 are canceled, according to a notice issued Friday. Chief Justice Eugene P. Rossiter by May 20 will reassess whether the closure should be extended again, the notice said.

• The court is also extending an existing suspension of timelines for document filings that began March 16 and said an additional 60-day period after the court reopens will be excluded from deadline calculations.
• It will treat all applications for notices to appeal during its closure and the 60-day period as automatically including extension requests. Parties who need to file replies to notices of appeal are encouraged to apply for the extension.
• The court said it won’t process any documents it receives until it reopens, but parties should still meet deadlines set by rules outside of the court’s jurisdiction. Parties without deadlines should wait to file documents.