JACKETT, P. (orally) :—In this appeal by the appellant from its assessment under Part I of the Income Tax Act for its 1963 taxation year, the sole question at issue between the parties is whether an amount that is taxable by virtue of Section 83A (5b) of the Act was ‘‘received’’ by the appellant in 1963 so as to be part of its income for 1963, in which event the assessment appealed from was correct, or was not received until 1964, in which event the appeal must succeed.
The amount in question was the consideration for the sale of certain oil and gas leases. A document was executed in 1963 purporting to be a conveyance of those leases by the appellant and an acknowledgment of receipt of the consideration by the appellant.
In fact the consideration was paid to a firm of solicitors, acting both for the vendor and the purchaser, in 1963 and was not paid over by the solicitors to the appellant until 1964.
The assessment is based on the assumption that the payment of the amount in question to the solicitors was a payment to them as agent for the appellant and that the appellant therefore received the amount in 1963.
Very difficult questions arise on the documents and the: evidence concerning the situation as far as the title to the leases is concerned and as to when the vendor was entitled to receive the consideration for the sale. I am not concerned with those questions.
I am satisfied on the evidence that what happened, in fact, was that the money was received by the solicitors in 1963 to be held by them in trust until the assignments were registered and to be then paid over to the appellant, and that the solicitors did, after the assignments were registered, pay the money to the appellant in 1964. It follows that the appellant did not receive the money until 1964 and that the appeal must succeed.
The appeal will be allowed with costs and will be referred back to the respondent for re-assessment on the basis that the amount in question was not received in 1963.