Health Quest: Appeal Allowed Where Crown Failed To Properly Plead Assumptions

What is the result of the Crown's failure to properly plead its assumptions in the Reply? This issue was considered by the Tax Court in Health Quest Inc. v. The Queen (2014 TCC 211) in which the Crown's Reply included "assumptions" that were statements of mixed fact and law rather than facts alone.

The taxpayer was a distributor of modified and "off-the-shelf" therapeutic footwear for relief of various disabling conditions of the feet. During the reporting periods at issue, section 24.1 in Part II of Schedule VI of the Excise Tax Act stated that zero-rated supplies included footwear designed for use by an individual who has a crippled or deformed foot or other similar disability when the footwear is supplied on the written order of a medical practitioner. (The provision was amended in 2012 to broaden the definition to include written orders by a "specified professional".) The taxpayer considered that most or all of the footwear it sold was zero-rated under s. 24.1.