The taxpayer appealed, under the informal procedure, a single notice of redetermination that reduced CEWS claims for 14 qualifying periods (as defined in s. 125.7) from $92,243.50 to nil. At The issue was whether the $25,000 monetary limit under s. 18.12(1) of the Tax Court of Canada Act (the TCC Act) applied.
In finding that, pursuant to s. 152(3.4), redeterminations for qualifying periods were made for individual qualifying periods rather than in the aggregate, and that the phrase "aggregate of all amounts" in s. 2.1 of the TCCA refers to the amount for each individual qualifying period rather than to the cumulative disputed amounts, Sorenson J. stated (at paras. 21-22):
Section 152(3.4) does not prescribe the form of a notice, and whether for convenience the Minister’s delegates issue notices of determination individually or summarily does not change the meaning of the legislation: CEWS entitlement is determined on individual qualifying periods, and even if the results of multiple determinations are set out on one document, the determinations remain separate events.
It is well accepted in income tax appeals that s. 2.1 of the TCC Act applies to each taxation year and assessment thereof, even if multiple years are appealed together in one notice of appeal. A matter may proceed in the Informal Procedure if each disputed assessment concerns an amount at or below the monetary threshold, even if the total of the disputed assessments exceeds that threshold. The same applies to individual CEWS determinations and appeals therefrom. … The same rationale applicable to income tax assessments must logically apply to CEWS determinations, namely, individual notices of determination may be appealed in a single notice of appeal without coalescing. There is no reason why they would not remain separate the way that income tax assessments remain separate for purposes of the monetary limit and the threshold in s. 2.1 of the TCC Act.
The same conclusions applied for CERS and CRHP purposes (para. 10).