In finding that non-interest-bearing amounts advanced to the taxpayer by his predecessor employers, as evidenced by promissory notes (the “Macquarie Notes”) were loans rather than salary advances, Ouimet J first stated (at paras. 54-45):
[T]he common law definition of a loan applicable in Ontario requires:
a) A sum of money is advanced to a person by another person; and
b) The person that received the sum of money agrees to repay it.
The Macquarie Notes meet that definition.
Ouimet J went on to find that the contemplation by the notes’ terms that they could be forgiven in the discretion of the employer had “no impact on the legal effect of the documents” and that it did “not matter what considerations led to the loans” (para. 60) (here, meeting the employer’s performance conditions).