If you don’t have receipts showing a valid GST registration number, you can’t prove that you didn’t claim the credits in prior years, and you don’t have receipts for all your claimed credits, can you still claim input tax credits? If the Court believes that you had valid receipts at the time you filed your returns, you might still be able to get the credits. (See e.g., Owraki v. The Queen, 2004 TCC (O’Connor).) But Ms. George’s evidence was conflicting and Justice Lamarre generally didn’t seem to trust it.
“[9] Under subsection 169(4) of the ETA, a registrant may claim ITCs only if he or she provides the information required in section 3 of the Input Tax Credit Information (GST/HST) Regulations (Regulations). The GST/HST registration number is one item of prescribed information. That number is not shown on the invoice provided by the appellant, and she did no verification to determine whether the supplier was validly registered. The information required by the regulations is mandatory (Davis v. Canada, [2004] T.C.J. No. 505(QL), [2004] G.S.T.C. 134, 2004 TCC 662) and the requirement must be strictly enforced (Systematix Technology Consultants Inc. v. Canada, [2007] F.C.J. No. 836 (QL), [2007] G.S.T.C. 74, 2007 FCA 226).”