Copthorne’s legacy: The future of Canada’s GAAR

Taxpayers awaited the Supreme Court of Canada’s (SCC) verdict in Copthorne with anxious anticipation in December, hoping for a roadmap to help ensure they don’t fall foul of the country’s GAAR. Joe Dalton investigates what the decision means for tax planning and how taxpayers can undertake an action with no business purpose, purely to achieve a tax benefit, without this being seen as an abuse of the Income Tax Act.