You've got mail: Taxpayer claims he didn't get CRA notices, but court calls allegation 'strange'

financialpost.com:

In your dealings with the Canada Revenue Agency, you have the option to receive its notices by either regular mail or email, but either way, the taxman assumes you receive them unless you can prove otherwise, as one taxpayer has found out.

A recent tax case, decided in September, dealt with a taxpayer who claimed to have never received various CRA notices dealing with tax reassessments for multiple tax years. The Windsor, Ont., mail carrier at one time also owned a nail salon. That business was audited by the CRA, which ultimately sent the taxpayer notices of reassessment for his 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2016 taxation years. He didn’t file notices of objection in time to challenge those reassessments, and he also missed the deadlines to apply for extensions.

Under the Income Tax Act, the deadline for individuals to file an objection is one year from the normal filing due date or 90 days after the date printed on your notice of (re)assessment, whichever is later. Practically speaking, that means if you filed your 2022 return by the May 1, 2023, general filing deadline and you received your assessment this past summer, you have until May 1, 2024, to file an objection.

If you miss the deadline, you can still apply to the CRA for an extension within one year. That application must include the reasons you didn’t object before the deadline and should be addressed to the Chief of Appeals at an Appeals Intake Centre. You’ll need to demonstrate that you were unable to object within the time limit, you were unable to instruct someone else to act for you, you had a “bona fide intention to object,” it would be “just and equitable” to extend the deadline and that your application was made as soon as circumstances permitted. Should