The registrant, who had a quarterly GST reporting period, had acquired a property for personal use, but converted it to commercial use (for short-term rentals) in the second quarter of 2005. VA Miller J agreed with the Minister's position that the four-year limitations period in s. 225(4)(b) had commenced on 1 July 2005 (i.e. the day after the end of the second quarter), and had thus expired before the registrant claimed an input tax credit at the end of 2009 in respect of the conversion.
The registrant had taken the position that s. 141.01(5) supported the contention that the conversion of the property from personal to commercial use had to be considered at the end of the "fiscal year" based on its use of "throughout the year." VA Miller J disagreed. She stated (at para. 11):
Rather subsection 141.01(5) allows a taxpayer to adopt a general allocation method to determine the amount of ITCs that can be claimed when that taxpayer has both taxable and exempt supplies: CIBC World Markets Inc. v. R., 2011 FCA 270.