We regularly get asked whether the Canada Revenue Agency
("CRA") can ask for particular documents during the
course of a goods and services tax ("GST") / harmonized
sales tax ("HST") audit or during a GST/HST appeal.
Usually, the question is in the form of a statement "they are
not allowed to ask for that". Our answer to the question
"Can the CRA force me to give them this document" depends
upon the document that is being requested and the relevance of the
document to the issue. That being said, in most cases, the
document has to be produced and it is not worth fighting with the
CRA and turning a routine audit into an acrimonious audit.
There are many cases in which the Court, when asked to compel a
taxpayer to give the CRA a document, does so. Recently, the
Federal Court of Canada issued a decision, Canada (National Revenue) v. Atlas Tube Canada
ULC, 2018 FC 1086 (November 11, 2018) which addressed the issue
of production of a requested document. In this case,
