Date: 19991029
Docket: A-570-98
CORAM: DÉCARY J.A.
ROBERTSON J.A.
NOËL J.A.
BETWEEN:
HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN
Appellant
- and -
JENS LARSEN
Respondent
REASONS FOR JUDGMENT
NOËL J.A.
[1] This is an appeal from a decision of Beaubier J.T.C.C. of the Tax Court of Canada in which he allowed the respondent"s appeal from a reassessment issued for his 1994 taxation year.1
[2] The litigation arises from a contract whereby the respondent and his three siblings gave a lumber company the right to enter their land and remove timber during a five-month period against a consideration of $70.00 per cubic metre of timber removed. Some 9,200 cubic metres of timber were removed pursuant to this arrangement giving rise to a monetary entitlement of $644,300 which was divided equally amongst the siblings. The land in question had been used as agricultural land for ranching purposes and continued to be so used after the timber was removed.
[3] In filing his tax return for the 1994 taxation year, the respondent took the position that the transaction was capital in nature and that the right disposed of under the contract was "qualified farm property". The Minister of National Revenue reassessed the respondent"s share of the proceeds on the basis that it was received on income account relying on paragraph 12(1)(g ) of the Income Tax Act (the Act):
| 12(1) There shall be included in computing the income of a taxpayer for a taxation year as income from a business or property such of the following amounts as are applicable: ...
|
12(1) Sont à inclure dans le calcul du revenu tiré par un contribuable d"une entreprise ou d"un bien, au cours d"une année d"imposition, les sommes appropriées suivantes: [...]
|
[4] On appeal, Beaubier J.T.C.C. held that the transaction gave rise to a capital receipt. With respect to paragraph 12(1)(g), Beaubier J.T.C.C. concluded that the amounts received were not "dependent on the use of or production from property". Alternatively, he held that:
| ..., in any event, the installments paid fall within the exception contained in paragraph 12(1)(g), since they are instalments ... on the sale price of an interest in agricultural land.2 |
Having found that the payments did not come within 12(1)(g), Beaubier J.T.C.C. went on to hold that the property disposed of was "qualified farm property" within the meaning of ss. 110.6(1) thereby entitling the respondent to an enhanced capital gain deduction provided by ss. 110.6(2).
[5] According to ss. 110.6(1):
| 110.6(1) "qualified farm property" of an individual ... at any particular time means a property owned at that time by the individual, the spouse of the individual or a partnership, an interest in which is an interest in a family farm partnership of the individual or the individual"s spouse that is
... in the course of carrying on the business of farming in Canada ... |
110.6(1) " bien agricole admissible " S"agissant d"un bien agricole d"un particulier à un moment donné, [...] l"un des biens suivants appartenant à ce moment donné au particulier, à son conjoint ou à une société de personnes dont une participation est une participation dans une société de personnes agricole familiale du particulier ou de son conjoint :
[...] |
[1] Paragraph 110(6)(2) then provides for a specified deduction from gains realized on the disposition of "qualified farm property" as follows:
| 110.6(2) In computing the taxable income for a taxation year of an individual (other than a trust) who was resident in Canada throughout the year and who disposed of qualified farm property in the year or a preceding taxation year ending after 1984, there may be deducted such amount as the individual may claim not exceeding the least of ... etc |
110.6(2) Le particulier -- à l"exception d"une fiducie -- qui réside au Canada tout au long d"une année d"imposition donnée et qui dispose de biens agricoles admissibles au cours de cette année donnée ou d"une année d"imposition antérieure se terminant après 1984 peut déduire, dans le calcul de son revenu imposable pour l"année donnée, le montant qu"il peut demander et qui ne dépasse pas le moins élevé des montants suivants : [...] etc |
[2] The appellant submits that Beaubier J.T.C.C. erred in holding that the amounts received were not "dependent on the use of or production from property" within the meaning of paragraph 12(1)(g ). The appellant also challenges Beaubier J.T.C.C."s alternative conclusion that these amounts came within the exception embodied in paragraph 12(1)(g ). Finally, the appellant submits that the Tax Court Judge also erred in holding that the property sold constituted "qualified farm property".
[3] In excluding the application of paragraph 12(1)(g), Beaubier J.T.C.C. relied on the decision of Strayer J. (as he then was) in The Queen v. Mel-Bar Ranches Ltd.,3 and in particular on the following passage:
| This was a one-time contract for the removal of timber in a specified area within a specified time. It was eminently reasonable that the purchaser should pay, and the defendant should receive, a price related to the amount of usable timber actually cut and removed in the fulfilment of the objective of removing timber. ... It appears to me that when clause 1 was drafted it was the assumption of all concerned that there was approximately 25,500 tonnes of logs which could and should be removed from the area designated by the contract. Recognizing the difficulties of estimating quantities available this precisely, the price was fixed at a rate per tonne actually cut. But the main focus throughout was the objective of getting all usable timber removed from the area designated within the time specified. That the defendant realized some undoubtedly welcome proceeds from the clearing of its land for grazing does not make those proceeds revenues "dependent upon the use of or production from property" in my understanding of the jurisprudence.4 |
[4] The jurisprudence alluded to by Strayer J. is Mouat v. M.N.R.,5 Hoffman v. M.N.R.6 and Lackie v. The Queen.7 Both Mowat and Hoffman involved the one-time sale of standing timber. In Hoffman, Board Member Weldon expressed the view that the right to remove trees as a result of a single grant limited in time was to be distinguished from an ongoing "profit à prendre" where one is granted the continuing right to enter and take away the product or profit of the soil.8 In Lackie , payments for an ongoing right to take away gravel from the land were held to come within 12(1)(g). In so holding, the Federal Court, Trial Division (Dubé J.) relying on the rule stated in Hoffman drew a distinction between a continuing licence to use land and "a single final transaction on transferring all the property"9 subject to the grant:
| I should think that if plaintiff's spouse had sold all the gravel, whether the amount agreed upon had been paid in one lump sum, or by instalments, that would be described as a transaction in the nature of capital (It is common ground that she was not in the business of selling gravel). But we are faced here with the sale of some gravel over a continuous period, the use of land and a profit à prendre over more than five years.10 |
[5] In Mel-Bar, the Court was dealing with a one-time contract for the removal of timber in a specified area within a specified time for a consideration computed by reference to the timber actually removed. Relying on the above authorities, Strayer J. held that the payments under this contract were not "dependent upon the use of a production from property"within the meaning of paragraph 12(1)(g ).
[6] The appellant asks us to disregard Mel-Bar on the basis that the word "use" in paragraph 12(1)(g ) necessarily encompasses a single or one time "use" of property having regard to the method of payment. The appellant concedes that a lump sum payment would take the transaction outside the scope of paragraph 12(1)(g). However, Strayer J. found as the Trial Judge did in this instance, that the amounts paid were consideration for the disposition of all specified timber within the designated area despite the manner in which the payments were computed. The case law has consistently excluded from the ambit of 12(1)(g ) receipts arising from a one-time contract for the removal of timber; I see no basis for disturbing this line of authority.
[7] That being so, it is not necessary to express any view with respect to Beaubier J.T.C.C."s alternative ground for excluding the application of paragraph 12(1)(g ), namely that the payments came within the exception expressed in the concluding words of paragraph 12(1)(g).
[8] The appellant also attacks Beaubier J.T.C.C."s subsequent conclusion to the effect that the right disposed of by the respondent and his siblings constitutes "qualified farm property". According to ss. 110.6(1), "qualified farm property" means "real property" that is used in the business of farming. In this respect, I have no doubt that a right to remove timber by severance is, at the time of the grant, an incorporeal hereditament in land which as such constitutes real property as was found by Beaubier J.T.C.C.11
[9] Nevertheless, the appellant contends that in order for "real property" to qualify under ss. 110.6(1), it must be the real property actually used in farming, and that the particular property sold by the respondent namely the standing timber, was not being so used at the time of the grant. In my view, this argument calls for a distinction which ss. 110.6(1) does not embody. Based on ss. 110.6(1), it is sufficient that the property, timbered as it was, was being used for farming at the relevant time. The Tax Court Judge so found as a fact. As the standing timber was itself real property and as it was an integral part of the farm property, this seems sufficient to bring it within the ambit of ss. 110.6(1).
[10] I would dismiss the appeal with costs.
"I agree"
Robert Décary, J.A.
"I agree"
J.T. Robertson, J.A.
(Sgd.) "Marc Noël"
| J. A. |
Date: 19991029
Docket: A-570-98
CORAM: DÉCARY J.A.
ROBERTSON J.A.
NOËL J.A.
BETWEEN:
HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN
Appellant
- and -
JENS LARSEN
Respondent
Heard at Vancouver, British Columbia on October 28, 1999
Judgment delivered at Vancouver, British Columbia on October 29, 1999
REASONS FOR JUDGMENT BY: NOEL, J.A.
FEDERAL COURT OF CANADA
APPEAL DIVISION
NAMES OF COUNSEL AND SOLICITORS ON THE RECORD
COURT FILE NO.: A-570-98
STYLE OF CAUSE: HMQ
v.
Jens Larsen
PLACE OF HEARING: Vancouver, British Columbia
DATE OF HEARING: October 28, 1999
REASONS FOR JUDGMENT OF NOEL, J.A.
DATED: October 29, 1999
APPEARANCES:
| Mr. Brent Paris For the Appellant |
| Mr. Kenneth R. Hauser For the Respondent |
SOLICITORS OF RECORD:
Morris Rosenberg
Deputy Attorney
| General of Canada For the Appellant |
Kenneth R. Hauser
Law Corporation
| Kamloops, BC For the Respondent |
1The decision is now reported at 98 D.T.C. 2193
2Reasons of Judgment, Appeal Book, vol. I, p. 19.
11Compare The Queen (B.C.) v. Tener, [1985] 1 S.C.R. 533 at pp. 540541; Highway Sawmills Limited v. M.N.R., 66 D.T.C. 5116 at 5120 (S.C.C.). See also R.E. Megarry and W.R. Wade, The Law of Real Property, 5th ed. (1984), pp. 11 and 814.