In October 2005, the Supreme Court of Canada released its much-anticipated decisions in The Queen v. Canada Trustco Mortgage Co. and Mathew v. The Queen—the first cases in which the Court has specifically addressed the General Anti-Avoidance Rule (GAAR) in section 245 of the Canadian Income Tax Act. Since then, the Tax Court of Canada has released several decisions in which the GAAR has been considered and applied.

The articles in this volume reflect on these decisions and the role of a general anti-avoidance rule more generally by reviewing the decisions themselves, considering other tax avoidance cases in Canada and other countries, and considering the structure and amendment of a GAAR as a matter of legislative policy. By addressing various aspects of tax avoidance jurisprudence as well as the design and amendment of the GAAR, the book makes a positive contribution toward the interpretation and application of this provision.

Tax Avoidance in Canada after Canada Trustco and Mathew will appeal to legal theorists, economists, tax advisors, tax litigators, and judges.

David G. Duff joined the University of Toronto Faculty of Law in 1996 and became an associate professor in 2001. He holds an LL.M. from Harvard, an LL.B. from the University of Toronto, and master's degrees in political theory from the University of Toronto and economics from York University. Prior to joining the Faculty of Law, Professor Duff was a tax associate at Stikeman Elliott's Toronto office. He was also a researcher with the Ontario Fair Tax Commission from 1991 to 1993 and a tax policy analyst with the Ontario Ministry of Finance in 1993–94. He has published articles in the areas of taxation, torts, and family law.

David G. Duff's profile page

Harry Erlichman is senior counsel in the Tax Law Section at the Department of Justice (Ontario Regional Office).

Harry Erlichman's profile page

Among other things, writing has long been a hobby for Donald A. Bowman. His anecdotal stories of prairie life and history have appeared in Folklore, a social history quarterly in Saskatchewan, and a few years ago he voiced a series of them for CBC Radio. Born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in 1922, Donald was married for 69 years, still lives independently, continues to drive, gets around just fine, thanks for asking, and still has an opinion. Old sailors are like that.

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"It would be impossible in a short foreword to do justice to the breadth, variety, and brilliance of the essays in this book.... Professor Duff and his co-editor, Mr. Erlichman, are to be commended. They have done a masterly job of assembling the most incisive commentaries on the GAAR that have been produced up to the present. In these papers the conflicting points of view have been canvassed, advanced, pulled apart, and, generally, put in a crucible and subjected to a meticulous and searching analysis. This selection of essays will be an invaluable vade mecum for anyone who has to litigate the GAAR, advise clients about its possible impact on their tax planning, or judge on which side of the rather indistinct line a particular transaction falls. Nobody ever said this was an easy task, but the papers in this book provide a wise and thoughtful exegesis in this difficult and evolving area of the law."

The Honourable Donald Bowman, Chief Justice of the Tax Court of Canada (from the Foreword)