Tax Litigation 201: Choice Of Venue

Since the Supreme Court of Canada's 2024 decisions in Iris Technologies and Dow Chemical, many taxpayers and tax practitioners have become well aware that the Tax Court of Canada is not a "one-stop shop" for tax disputes.

The rule of thumb for "jurisdiction" is that most tax cases go to the Tax Court of Canada, but that CRA discretionary decisions must be challenged in the Federal Court.

As we see in the Ingredion case dealt with below, that may not ALWAYS be the case – and it introduced a third possible jurisdiction in some cases: Provincial Superior Courts!

Ingredion Canada

In Ingredion (2025 FC 1842), the taxpayer filed Notices of Objection for the 2014 and 2015 taxation years while appeals of the 2012 and 2013 Notices of Assessment were pending before the Tax Court. At the taxpayer's request, the CRA agreed to hold the 2014–2015 Objections in abeyance. However, the CRA later dismissed those Objections and confirmed the 2014 and 2015 Assessments. The