Date: 20001130
Docket: 2000-462-IT-I
BETWEEN:
GERTRUD NEUHAUS,
Appellant,
and
HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN,
Respondent.
Reasons for Judgment
(Delivered orally from the bench at Ottawa, Ontario, on November 21, 2000, and amended at Ottawa, Ontario, on November 30, 2000)
Lamarre, J.T.C.C.
[1] During the 1995 and 1996 taxation years, the appellant reported $20,000 in employment income from the Élise de Cotret medical office and claimed a tax refund for the tax that she said she had paid through source deductions.
[2] By assessment, the Minister of National Revenue ("Minister") reduced the appellant's employment income from Élise de Cotret to $15,000 in 1995 and $15,750 in 1996. He calculated the appellant's federal tax to be $554.10 in 1995 and $979 in 1996. The appellant is not contesting the federal tax. She submits that that tax has already been paid through tax deductions at source. The Minister did not grant any tax credit on the wages from Élise de Cotret on the ground that no source deductions had been made or remitted to the Receiver General by Élise de Cotret.
[3] The evidence, and particularly the testimony of Bertrand de Cotret, who was in charge of the payroll for the Élise de Cotret medical office and who had in his possession the payroll journal and the cheques issued to the appellant, shows that the appellant did not receive wages higher than those on which the Minister based his assessment. The evidence also shows that the appellant was given her gross wages and that no source deductions seem to have been made to pay her taxes. The appellant claims that she received $350 net per week. However, according to the cheques in Bernard de Cotret's possession, she received cheques ranging for the most part between $375 and $390 a week in 1995 and 1996. Mr. de Cotret also suggested that Élise de Cotret did not consider the people who worked for her to be employees. Whether she was right or wrong in that is not what I have to decide. The appellant claims that her gross wages were $20,000 and that source deductions were made and remitted to the government. It is my view that the evidence does not support the appellant's claims. She has not satisfied me that amounts were deducted from her wages and remitted to the government so as to entitle her to a tax credit.
[4] Moreover, the appellant is not contesting the amounts of tax she had to pay for the years at issue, as calculated by the Minister. In this context, it is not within my jurisdiction to decide the issue of the tax credits that may be owed to the appellant. That is a tax collection question which falls within the jurisdiction of the Federal Court (see Liu v. The Queen, [1995] 2 C.T.C. 2971D #2 (T.C.C.); 1995 CarswellNat 635).
[5] I also note that the Minister did not make any changes to the appellant's tax return for 1997.
[6] It is therefore my opinion that the appeals are unfounded in law. The appeals are accordingly dismissed.
Signed at Ottawa, Canada, this 30th day of November 2000.
"Lucie Lamarre"
J.T.C.C.
[OFFICIAL ENGLISH TRANSLATION]
Translation certified true on this 19th day of December 2000.
Erich Klein, Revisor