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ARTICLE · 26 NOVEMBER 2025

Costs Follow Control, Not Optimism

Counter Tax Litigators LLP
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Under Tax Court oversight, the results and economics shift; unsupported positions are exposed and no longer insulated from real scrutiny.

CanadaTax
Peter Aprile
Peter Aprile
Natalie Worsfold
Natalie Worsfold
James Roberts
James Roberts
Jennifer Mak
Jennifer Mak
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Under Tax Court oversight, the results and economics shift; unsupported positions are exposed and no longer insulated from real scrutiny.

Key Takeaways

  • Enhanced costs continue to rise. The Tax Court again imposed enhanced costs on the Crown, reinforcing a pattern: disciplined conduct in the right arena creates financial consequences that shape CRA and DoJ behaviour.
  • The Court refused to compensate audit and objection work, even for a successful appellant. This widens the cost gap between CRA's self-adjudication stage and the appeal arena, where control and oversight exist.
  • A single unforced error, breaching settlement-offer confidentiality unintentionally, removed access to substantial indemnity costs, despite an otherwise qualifying offer.

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