“[50] It is thus clearly established in the jurisprudence that a taxpayer can not file an appeal against a nil assessment for the simple reason that an assessment according to which no tax is payable is not an assessment within the meaning of the ITA.
“[51] Moreover, the right to appeal an assessment has for its goal the reduction of tax payable or yet its elimination. To contest the nil assessment would result in ignoring the very purpose of the right to appeal.”
The taxpayer sought to use an allowable business investment loss against its 2001 year. CRA had allowed the loss against the 2002 year but that had not used up the full amount of the loss. Also, the 10-year time limit that allows CRA to permit a taxpayer to adjust prior year returns had passed. As the court said, the taxpayer still had the right to claim the loss against future year capital gains.
“[78] Still, [the taxpayer] can, faced with true assessments later (which are not reduced to zero) appeal from those … with the goal of being able to deduct its losses incurred in 2002 against those later tax years, and this, subject obviously to statutory time limits.”
[My translation.]