2020-0874951I7 indicated that if a request for a retroactive change to a taxation year is made after the corporate tax returns are filed but before the first Notice of Assessment for that year is issued, it will generally be granted – but not if such request is made after such issuance.
What if, after such initial assessment of the first year, a timely objection is filed to request cancellation of the initial assessment pursuant to s. 165(3), so that the taxpayer is now free to file a fresh first-year return with a changed year end? In rejecting this approach, CRA stated:
For the purposes of subsection 165(3), an assessment may generally be vacated upon receipt of a Notice of Objection if a taxpayer submits additional facts or compelling arguments that were not before the Minister at the time the assessment was made and that demonstrate that the assessment is either invalid … or was unfounded … .
[Here] … the mere fact that the corporation wishes to change the timing of its fiscal period end after tax has been assessed for the year corresponding to the fiscal period, even if it is the corporation's first fiscal period, does not, in and of itself, invalidate or render unfounded the [initial] assessment … .