Martin Sorensen and Hennadiy Kutsenko write in The Lawyer's Daily on "Retroactive registration rescues real estate reseller" in Ouazana v. Canada [2020], a GST case decided by the Tax Court of Canada. The case involved a businessman who sold commercial real estate to a third party and did not collect GST on the sale based on the understanding that the purchaser was GST-registered. When it was ultimately determined that this was incorrect, the purchaser sought and received a retroactive registration from CRA back to the date of the purchase. However, CRA still argued that the purchaser's retroactive registration did not fix the non-collection problem. Ultimately, the Tax Court sided with the vendor. This decision is a welcome and sensible result, but serves as a good reminder of the importance of ensuring that a purchaser is validly registered for GST purposes before a vendor can refrain from collecting applicable GST.
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