Latest news with #CanadaRevenueAgency
National Post
4 hours ago
- Business
- National Post
Shopify scores win over Canada Revenue Agency in merchant-data case
Shopify Inc. has come out on top of a battle with the Canada Revenue Agency. Article content A federal court order issued Thursday shows Judge Guy Regimbald sided with the Canadian tech company, which was fighting the CRA's attempt to get more than six years of Shopify records. Article content The records were being sought in order to verify that Canadian merchants using Shopify software were obeying the Income Tax Act and the Excise Tax Act. Article content The CRA wanted the names of individuals who own Shopify accounts, their birthdates, addresses, phone numbers and their bank transit, institution and account numbers. Article content It also asked for their Shopify ID numbers, what type of store they ran, when their Shopify accounts were activated or closed and how many transactions and their value were made over the six-year period the CRA was interested in. Article content Some of the information had been requested by the Australian Tax Office, which wanted to ensure Shopify merchants were complying with the country's laws. A separate case Judge Regimbald presided over saw the CRA ask for court permission to obtain and send the records to Australia. Article content CRA spokesperson Sylvie Branch said the agency is aware of the court's decision and 'is currently analyzing the case details and associated information.' Article content Shopify pointed The Canadian Press to a post on X from its CEO, Tobi Lutke, who shared the outcome of his company's court battle and called the CRA's behaviour 'blatant overreach.' Article content Article content CRA demanded 6 years of Canadian merchant data from us. This felt like blatant overreach We took them to court and last Friday Justice Régimbald agreed with us. The court dismissed the request and called it '… unintelligible, incoherent, or otherwise beyond its understanding' — tobi lutke (@tobi) June 1, 2025 Article content Shopify fought the CRA in both cases when they were filed in 2023, insisting the group of merchants the agency wanted information for was 'overly broad and inconsistently defined.' Article content Article content The company also claimed a multilateral tax treaty being used to seek the information for Australia 'is without domestic force' when information about unnamed people is being requested. Article content Regimbald ultimately decided not to order Shopify to turn over the records to the CRA because he found the tax agency had not outlined an identifiable group of individuals whose data it wanted. Article content He said the court would not entertain a request to hand over information on unnamed parties 'that is unintelligible, incoherent, or otherwise beyond its understanding.' Article content
Edmonton Journal
4 hours ago
- Business
- Edmonton Journal
Shopify scores win over Canada Revenue Agency in merchant-data case
Article content Shopify Inc. has come out on top of a battle with the Canada Revenue Agency. A federal court order issued Thursday shows Judge Guy Regimbald sided with the Canadian tech company, which was fighting the CRA's attempt to get more than six years of Shopify records. The records were being sought in order to verify that Canadian merchants using Shopify software were obeying the Income Tax Act and the Excise Tax Act.
CTV News
7 hours ago
- Business
- CTV News
Shopify wins court battle against Canada Revenue Agency in merchant-data case
The Ottawa headquarters of Canadian e-commerce company Shopify are pictured on Wednesday, May 29, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang Shopify Inc. has come out on top of a battle with the Canada Revenue Agency. A federal court order issued Thursday shows Judge Guy Régimbald sided with the Canadian tech company, which was fighting the CRA's attempt to get more than six years of Shopify records. The records were being sought in order to verify that Canadian merchants using Shopify software were obeying the Income Tax Act and the Excise Tax Act. The CRA wanted the names of individuals who own Shopify accounts, their birthdates, addresses, phone numbers and their bank transit, institution and account numbers. It also asked for their Shopify ID numbers, what type of store they ran, when their Shopify accounts were activated or closed and how many transactions and their value were made over the six-year period the CRA was interested in. Some of the information had been requested by the Australian Tax Office, which wanted to ensure Shopify merchants were complying with the country's laws. A separate case Judge Régimbald presided over saw the CRA ask for court permission to obtain and send the records to Australia. CRA spokesperson Sylvie Branch said the agency is aware of the courts decision and 'is currently analyzing the case details and associated information.' Shopify pointed The Canadian Press to a post on X from its CEO Tobi Lütke who shared the outcome of his company's court battle and called the CRA's behaviour 'blatant overreach.' Shopify fought the CRA in both cases when they were filed in 2023, insisting the group of merchants the agency wanted information for was 'overly broad and inconsistently defined.' The company also claimed a multilateral tax treaty being used to seek the information for Australia 'is without domestic force' when information about unnamed people is being requested. Régimbald ultimately decided not to order Shopify to turn over the records to the CRA because he found the tax agency had not outlined an identifiable group of individuals whose data it wanted. He said the court would not entertain a request to hand over information on unnamed parties 'that is unintelligible, incoherent, or otherwise beyond its understanding.' As part of his order, Régimbald requested the CRA pay legal costs of $45,000 in each case, bringing the government's bill to $90,000. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 2, 2025.
Toronto Star
9 hours ago
- Business
- Toronto Star
Shopify wins court battle against Canada Revenue Agency in merchant-data case
Shopify Inc. has come out on top of a battle with the Canada Revenue Agency. A federal court order issued Thursday shows Judge Guy Régimbald sided with the Canadian tech company, which was fighting the CRA's attempt to get more than six years of Shopify records.
CBC
4 days ago
- Business
- CBC
TFSA contribution limit info has been unavailable since mid-April, CRA confirms
For more than a month Canadians looking to see how much contribution room is remaining in their tax-free savings accounts (TFSA) on the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) website have been out of luck. In an email to CBC News, CRA spokesperson Nina Ioussoupova confirmed that information has been unavailable since mid-April. "There have been delays in processing TFSA annual information returns this year," Ioussoupova said in the email. "To avoid displaying erroneous information on My Account, the display of TFSA information, including TFSA contribution room, has been blocked since April 17, 2025." The tax-free savings accounts were introduced by Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government in 2009. Each year, Canadians who are at least 18 years old receive an increase to the amount of money they can invest. In 2025, for example, the additional contribution limit is $7,000. If someone was 18 in 2009, has lived in Canada since then and never contributed to their TFSA, their total contribution limit would be $102,000 as of Jan. 1, 2025. But if a person contributes every year, but doesn't reach the limit, it can be more difficult to calculate. Withdrawals are also added to a person's contribution limit the following year. Ioussoupova said in her email that the CRA is working to update TFSA contribution information "as quickly as possible." She added that to "avoid over-contributing, review the records provided by your issuer." Ioussoupova said taxpayers can fill out what's called a RC343 Worksheet to estimate their TFSA contribution room for the year. Philip Spagnolo, a senior accountant with Jakubo Chartered Professional Accountants in Sudbury, said it's important people are aware of the TFSA contribution room before they invest funds. "There's a one per cent interest that's charged on the amount that you over contribute. So you want to be aware of that so you don't run into that problem," he said. Spagnolo said it's possible to file an appeal with the CRA if someone is charged interest for over-contributing to their TFSA, but there's no guarantee they would be successful.
