Experienced Lawyers in
Taxation and Collaborative Law

Don’t face your legal

challenges alone.

Faced with increasingly complex and shifting tax regimes, together with the need to remain competitive, our clients rely on us to provide effective tax advice, innovative planning, efficient tax structures and comprehensive risk assessments. Our professionals across our offices provide clients with the insights they need to understand how domestic and international tax laws impact their business operations as well as personal tax planning. With expertise in all areas of tax from corporate tax and estate planning to commodity tax and domestic and international transactions, our tax group can assist.

Members of our Tax Group have served in government and private industry tax departments. They regularly make submissions to government on tax laws, write and lecture on tax, and actively contribute to the Toronto Tax Foundation, the Investment Funds Institute of Canada, the International Fiscal Association and the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners. Macdonald & Sager LLP is the exclusive representative of Taxand in Canada. With more than 400 tax partners and over 2,000 advisors in 48 countries, Taxand is the world's largest organisation of tax advisors to multinational businesses.

hand shake Macdonald & Sager LLP mediation law

We have extensive experience assisting our clients with appeals and matters of professional liability

A reassessment can be a difficult experience for any business or a shareholder of the business. It is natural to panic a little - or a lot - when client's business gets a notice that the business' taxes are being or have been reassessed, particularly if the amounts involved are large. It might feel like the you, as a business owner, will have to justify every expense you have ever made, and that you and your business will be treated as guilty until proven innocent. One of Macdonald & Sager LLP goals is to help take away the panic by assisting business owners to navigate their way through the process. Much of our job involves translation of tax legalese into plain English. Often our clients tell us that coming into our office helps them to understand everything far more clearly than trying to talk on the phone to CRA personnel who have no stake in helping them understand the process or their options. In order to help the clients through a CRA reassessment dispute, Macdonald & Sager LLP need to know what stage of the process the client is at. This will determine the options available to the client. For the most part, a reassessment is not the time or place to explain to the CRA why an aspect of tax law is wrong, even if the client feels it is. Going that route will not help our client's business, and helping our client's business is our goal. The reassessment is the time and place to work within the existing tax laws to get the client the best results possible.

In Arbitration, we determine the issues between you and the other side in a pseudo court-like process. The difference is that you determine the rules. While in court you may require many preliminary attendances, you can avoid that with arbitration. Together with your qualified arbitrator, you and the other side will meet to discuss not just the process, but the manner in which you may wish to proceed. You can agree on how evidence will be introduced to the process, the timing and dates that are flexible and can be arranged to your convenience.

At times, people are unable to reach an agreement with negotiation and mediation, so arbitration may occur if you cannot resolve one or more of the mediated issues. As you are the only people appearing in front of the Arbitrator, there is minimal delay or wasted time. It is an efficient way to determine issues that cannot be agreed to through negotiation or mediation, but attendance at mediation is not a prerequisite to arbitration. The Arbitrator will hear the evidence from you and your witnesses, consider submissions from you or your counsel and make a decision that can be incorporated in a summary manner into a court order. This is an efficient and practical approach.

“Macdonald & Sager LLP provides peace of mind by offering clients an alternative to toxic litigation. We are here to help resolve issues so you can move on with your life.” ~ Thomas Dart