Legal Research

In the Spring, a young man?s thoughts turn to . . . taxes

By Ted Tjaden

Yes, it is that time of year in Canada. On or before April 30, 2010, to be specific, for most people.

As a known procrastinator, I vow to file on time this year.

I find the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) website surprisingly helpful on the special deductions this year for the home renovation tax credit and also in answering questions on RRSPs (although the CRA is an easy target for criticism, their website is one of the better websites having an effective online A to Z index).

And with the advent of online tax preparation software, the entire process is made somewhat easier.

The tax law literature in Canada is voluminous and fairly well organized. I have always found David Sherman?s Sherman’s Canadian Tax Research: A Practical Guide, 4th ed. (Toronto: Carswell, 2005) to provide a lot of good tips on income tax legal research. Likewise, CCH’s Canadian Income Tax Research Index (recently migrated from looseleaf to digital) is excellent for conducting tax research. Both CCH Online and Carswell’s Taxnet.pro are good subscription services with strong tax content.

I also admire the strength of tax lawyers to lug around the increasingly heavy annual softcover Income Tax Act and Regulations (when I have some time, I hope to test out the Blackberry version of Carswell’s annotated Act, although I suspect viewing it on an iPad might be easier). Kudos to the Department of Justice Laws website for having a current version of the Income Tax Act online.

I was somewhat surprised to see so few Canadian income tax law blogs with the Simpson Wigle LLP tax blog being the most prominent.

The law librarians at the Canadian Tax Foundation library have always been extremely helpful.

In checking out the UBC Tax Law Resources, I had not realized that income tax law professor and author David Duff has moved to the University of British Columbia (probably the most passionate lecturer on tax law – he makes tax law fun).

You can of course research “grey literature” on Canadian income tax law by searching for law firm bulletins on my custom Google search of Canadian law firm websites, blogs, and journals.

Well. Enough procrastination. If this post motivates you to get your tax returns filed, great! All I need is to motivate myself and not find other means of procrastination . . . .

Full post as published by Slaw.ca on April 14, 2010 (boomark / email).