A Revenu Québec audit, an unexpected notice of assessment or a growing tax debt can jeopardize an individual’s finances as well as a business’s survival. The lawyers at Verreau Dufresne step in at every stage of the tax process, from the audit to trial, to protect your rights and limit the bill.
Your tax litigation lawyers in Québec City and Lévis
The team at Verreau Dufresne Avocats handles tax disputes for individuals, self-employed workers and businesses before Revenu Québec and the courts.
A tax file does not begin before the judge. It begins well before, when an auditor contacts you and asks for your documents. Every answer given, every document provided and every explanation offered at this stage shapes the assessment that will eventually be issued — and the evidence you will have to work with afterward.
That is why our lawyers act both upstream, as advisers supporting you during the audit and objection, and downstream, as litigators before the Court of Québec.
Our approach is settlement-oriented. The vast majority of tax disputes are settled without a trial, at the negotiating table with the auditor, the objections officer or the lawyer for the Agence du revenu du Québec. You still need to present the right argument, at the right time, with the evidence to support it. Our lawyers know how the tax administration works and when a file is better settled — and when it is worth litigating.
Our tax litigation services
Support during a tax audit
- Strategic advice from the auditor’s first contact
- Managing communications and requests for documents
- Preparing and validating the answers sent to Revenu Québec
- Representation at meetings with the auditor
- Analyzing and contesting a proposed assessment before it becomes final
- Defence in audits using an indirect method (net worth, bank deposits, expense analysis)
Objection to a notice of assessment
- Analyzing the assessment and evaluating your chances of success
- Drafting and filing the notice of objection on time
- Application for an extension of time to object
- Building the evidence file and written submissions
- Negotiating with the objections officer
- Application to suspend collection measures
- Application for cancellation or waiver of interest, penalties and fees
Representation before the courts
- Appeal before the Court of Québec
- Proceedings before the Small Claims Division of the Court of Québec
- Appeal before the Tax Court of Canada in GST/HST matters
- Appeal before the Court of Appeal of Quebec
- Application for judicial review before the Superior Court
- Negotiating a settlement at every stage of the court file
Other tax services
- Income tax assessments (individuals and corporations)
- GST and QST assessments, denied input tax refunds (ITRs/ITCs)
- Contesting penalties for gross negligence
- Personal liability of directors (source deductions, GST and QST)
- Assessments related to source deductions and self-employed status
- Seizures, legal hypothecs and other Revenu Québec collection measures
- Payment arrangements and negotiating a tax debt
- Files handled in parallel with the Canada Revenue Agency
The stages of a tax file
Many taxpayers discover the tax process along the way, when strict deadlines are already running against them. Here is how a file generally unfolds.
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The tax audit
Nothing has been decided yetIt usually all starts with an audit. Revenu Québec examines your returns, your books and your supporting documents to determine whether the amounts reported are accurate.
At this stage, nothing has been decided yet. This is the most useful time to step in: the explanations and documents you give the auditor are used to build the assessment, and it is much easier to correct a position before it becomes official than to overturn it afterward.
When the auditor gives you a proposed assessment you disagree with, it is in your best interest to assert your position right away. Many disputes are settled at this stage, without you having to object.
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The notice of assessment
Presumed valid, even if contestedAt the end of the audit, Revenu Québec issues a notice of assessment. It sets out the duties, interest and, where applicable, penalties you must pay.
A notice of assessment is not just the tax administration’s opinion: it is presumed valid and takes effect even if you contest it. Interest also keeps accruing for as long as the dispute lasts.
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Objection to Revenu Québec
Deadline: 90 daysAn objection is a free administrative remedy that allows your file to be re-examined by someone who was not involved in the audit.
This is a mandatory step: without a validly filed objection, you lose your right to go to court.The deadline is short. You generally have 90 days from the date of the notice of assessment to file your notice of objection. Individuals and testamentary trusts sometimes have a longer deadline for income tax, namely one year after the filing due date of the return, if that deadline is more favourable to them. If you were unable to act in time, an application for an extension of time is still possible.
An objection is not a formality. It is a real opportunity to negotiate and persuade, backed by legal argument and well-built evidence.
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Contesting before the courts
Deadline: 90 daysIf you are not satisfied with the decision on your objection, you can take your file to court:
- before the Court of Québec for assessments under Quebec tax laws, such as income tax and QST;
- before the Tax Court of Canada for GST/HST assessments.
Here again, the deadline is generally 90 days from the date of the decision on the objection. If Revenu Québec has not rendered a decision within 180 days, you can already go to court without waiting.
Even at this stage, the file can still be settled. A significant share of disputes end with a negotiated agreement with the lawyers for the Agence du revenu du Québec, often after the taxpayer’s evidence has been organized and disclosed.
The burden of proof is on you
This is the feature of tax law that surprises taxpayers the most: it is not up to Revenu Québec to prove that its assessment is well founded; it is up to you to show that it is not.
In civil matters, the person making a claim normally has to prove what they allege. In tax matters, the rule is reversed. The assessment benefits from a presumption of validity: the facts on which the tax administration relies — including those it simply inferred during the audit — are held to be true until the taxpayer has demolished them.
In practical terms, this means that a lack of evidence works against you. A lost invoice, a plausible but undocumented explanation, a bank deposit whose source can no longer be traced: each of these may remain taxable, not because Revenu Québec has proven anything, but because you failed to prove otherwise.
This is precisely where a lawyer’s contribution is decisive. A tax file is rarely won by a single brilliant idea; it is won because it has been built with rigour:
A well-prepared file settles better, and sooner.
Tax litigation or tax planning?
The two terms sound alike, but they refer to two different professions.
A tax lawyer who provides tax advice works upstream, in a world close to that of accountants: they write interpretation memos, set up corporate structures, plan transactions and optimize the tax burden of a taxpayer or business.
A tax litigation lawyer, on the other hand, steps in once a disagreement has arisen. Their field is evidence, procedure, negotiation and the courtroom: overturning or reducing an assessment, defending a position before Revenu Québec, building the file and arguing it.
This second role is ours. Verreau Dufresne is a litigation firm. We do not do tax planning or structuring — we defend you when the tax administration challenges your returns, your expenses, your taxes or your structure. When a file requires tax planning expertise or a specialized tax opinion, we work with your accountant, your tax specialist or one of the professionals in our network.
The advantage of retaining our lawyers
Consulting early costs less than correcting late
Many taxpayers consult us once they have received the assessment, when the best opportunity to act was during the audit. A call at the auditor’s first contact often changes the outcome of the file.
An ally in negotiations
Our lawyers are negotiators as much as litigators. They identify the points that can really be contested, set aside those that lead nowhere and look for the settlement that will cost you the least, while keeping the file ready for trial if no agreement is reached.
A focus on proportionality
A tax dispute must remain cost-effective. We assess with you the amounts at stake, your chances of success and the costs of proceedings before recommending a strategy.
A big-picture view
A tax assessment rarely has only tax consequences. It can threaten a business’s solvency, engage its directors’ personal liability, jeopardize a transaction or lead to seizures. Our lawyers combine tax litigation with business law, administrative law, debt collection and bankruptcy and insolvency.
Two ways to retain us
Depending on your situation, you can entrust us with your entire file or retain us for specific steps that you handle yourself.
Income tax, GST and QST
Our services cover all assessments issued by Revenu Québec, whether for personal and corporate income tax or for consumption taxes.
GST and QST files have their own pitfalls: denied input tax refunds, alleged accommodation invoices, challenges to mandatary status, significant penalties and, above all, directors’ personal liability for unremitted taxes. Collection rules also differ from those that apply to personal income tax.
We act both before Revenu Québec and before the Tax Court of Canada when the assessment concerns GST/HST.
Suspending collection
Contesting does not always suspend collection. Revenu Québec has powerful means to collect a tax debt: set-off, legal hypothecs, administrative seizure in the hands of third parties on your bank accounts or salary, seizure and sale under judicial authority, not to mention collection fees of up to 10% of the debt.
For personal income tax, the law requires Revenu Québec to suspend collection while the objection or appeal is being processed. In other situations — particularly for a QST assessment or a denied input tax refund — suspension is not automatic: it must be requested and certain conditions must be met.
Our lawyers analyze your situation, submit the appropriate applications and, where appropriate, negotiate a payment arrangement while your dispute runs its course.
Lawyers in Québec City and Lévis
Are you being audited, have you received a notice of assessment or do you need to contest a Revenu Québec decision? Don’t let the deadlines run. Contact us now to have your file assessed.
