acquire

The appellant subscribed $310 million for units of various income funds, which were intended to qualify as mutual fund trusts on the basis that each had received subscription proceeds totaling $128,250 from 171 investors, with each such investor subscribing for 100 units at $7.50 per unit.

The taxpayer entered into an arrangement with a consultant ("Bobsan") under which Bobsan would recommend to him firms within the high-tech area to whom the taxpayer might apply for a position, and the taxpayer agreed to pay Bobsan the first $100,000 of any employee stock option benefits realized by him from such an employer, plus 1/3 of the excess over $100,000. In finding that an amount paid by the taxpayer to Bobsan pursuant to this arrangement did not qualify as an "amount ... paid by the employee to acquire the right to acquire ... securities" for purposes of s.

When the taxpayer exercised stock option rights, he did so as nominee for others. Accordingly, he had not "acquired" (i.e., obtained for himself) the shares and, accordingly, was not taxable.

Létourneau J.A. found that in the context of the temporary program for qualified small-business property, the proper interpretation of the word "acquired" refers to the time when farming equipment was purchased by means of a binding and enforceable contract, rather than the later time at which beneficial ownership passed to the purchaser.

The Quebec taxpayer was found to have "acquired" trucks pursuant to leases given that it had possession and use of the trucks, it had assumed all risks, it had the option, six months before the expiry of the lease, to purchase the trucks for an amount approximately equal to the fair market value of the remaining lease payment, and it was required to pay the "rent" even if the trucks were destroyed or it no longer had the use of them.

The Appellant (a car manufacturer) was the administrator of various defined benefit pension plans for its unionized employees. It was the recipient of portfolio advisory services as it rather than the plans was contractually liable to pay the advisors' fees, and the Crown did not dispute that it also "acquired" those services if s. 167.1 did not apply to deem those services to instead have been acquired by the plans (which it did not).