Jamieson v The Queen, 2013 TCC 52

2013 TCC 52 · Tax Court of Canada

Originally published on IncomeTaxAct.ca on 12 March 2014. The law may have changed since; check the current text in the tax wiki.

An unobjectionable decision by Justice VA Miller confirms that being a lawyer is not enough to allow for the deduction of the expenses associated with maintaining one’s “lawyer” status (including CLE fees).

The Appellant (a lawyer) was relying on the first branch of the source test for business or property income in Stewart v. R., 2002 SCC 46, where it was said that the “pursuit of profit” only looks to see if there is a personal element in the matter. Miller J, indicating that there must be some ‘pursuing being done’, said that one must actually practice law and be in the business of law. Here, Jamieson had all that was needed to start the pursuit, but didn’t do any pursuing.