at any time

Mr Baxendale-Walker, the sole equity partner in a law firm specializing in advising on tax-avoidance schemes, charged the taxpayer (Mr Barker) a fee of £2.4 million in advising on a scheme which Mr Barker implemented with a view to avoiding capital gains tax and inheritance tax respecting his shares of a private company. More than a decade later, HMRC assessed Mr Barker on the basis of a construction (the “post-death exclusion construction") of s. 28 of the Inheritance Tax Act 1984 which considered “that the words ‘at any time’ meant exactly what they said” (para. 93).

Within the normal reassessment period, the Minister reassessed the taxpayer's 1987 taxation year to permit the deduction, at the taxpayer's request, of a loss carry back from 1988 and then, beyond the normal reassessment period but within the extended reassessment period, the Minister reassessed the taxpayer's 1987 taxation year to disallow the deduction of the loss carry back from 1988. The Tax Court had determined that the Minister was not entitled to so reassess because s. 152(4)(b)(i) only authorized a single reassessment.

McArthur J. dismissed the taxpayer's argument that his waiver of the normal limitations period on reassessments applied only to the first reassessment issued beyond the limitations period and thus excluded the second. The words "at any time" in s. 152(4) mean "from time to time" and allow for multiple reassessments both inside and outside the limitations period. (Canada v. Agazarian, 2004 DTC 6366, 2004 FCA 32 at para. 33.)