The taxpayer, who was a U.S. citizen resident in Canada, did not claim treaty benefits when filing his U.S. return, with the result that his U.S.-source pension income was subject to U.S. income tax at graduated rates rather than the treaty-reduced rate of 15%.
Hershfield J., after finding that the overpayment by the taxpayer did not qualify as a tax, indicated (at p. 2398) that paragraph 2 of Article XXIV of the Canada-U.S. Convention did not refer, like paragraph 1 of that Article, to a credit only being provided where the "appropriate amount of income tax" was paid or accrued to the source jurisdiction because "the Canadian drafters of the Treaty would be allowed to rely on jurisprudence or opinions that would confirm that an amount paid gratuitously without basis under the laws of the foreign jurisdiction would not be a 'tax'".