The taxpayer entered into a personal management contract with his daughter (Chantal). an aspiring singer/ songwriter, under which he would incur promotional expenses up front and receive a 5% or 10% commission if Chantal achieved a major milestone, such as signing with a major record label. CRA disallowed his related business expense deductions of $52,046 for his 2017 taxation year on the basis that he was not engaged in the business of artist management.
Wong J allowed his appeal. Although there was clearly a personal element to the management activity (para. 21) and the taxpayer had not signed the contract (para. 22), other elements demonstrated that taxpayer was carrying on the activity in a sufficiently commercial manner: as also referred to above, a talent competition judge had liked Chantal’s singing and had produced an album with her (para. 22) from which one song received radio play (para.9) and produced royalties from SOCAN (para. 13); the taxpayer engaged an accountant with an understanding of the music industry (para. 23); the contract arrangement seemed logical because it protected the artist from staying in a personal management arrangement that did not fulfill its promise (para. 24); the taxpayer built a network of industry contacts which led to the recording of a second album in Nashville in 2017 (though it had not received radio play); and Chantal eventually signed a licence agreement with a Toronto record label in 2019 (para. 25).