Tax Court appeal deadline: 90 days from the CRA's decision

Tax Court deadlines at a glance

Subsection 169(1) lets your client appeal once the Minister has confirmed the assessment or reassessed, or once 90 days have passed after the objection was served with no decision. No appeal can be started more than 90 days after the day the CRA sent its confirmation or reassessment laws-lois.justice.gc.ca. The CRA puts it as the Tax Court having to receive the notice of appeal within 90 days of the date it sends the decision canada.ca.

GST/HST runs on its own section with the same 90 day limit after the decision, but the early appeal only opens 180 days after the objection was filed laws-lois.justice.gc.ca. The Tax Court counts the 90 days from the day following the date the notice was issued, not the day your client opened the envelope tcc-cci.ca.

There is no appeal without an objection first. If your client is still inside the objection window, that deadline comes first: see the notice of objection deadline.

Worked example: counting the 90 days to the day

Say the CRA confirms your client's 2023 reassessment with a notice of confirmation dated October 14, 2026. Day 1 is October 15.

The notice of appeal has to reach the Tax Court by January 12, 2027. Miss that date, and the last day to apply for an extension under paragraph 167(5)(a) is January 12, 2028 laws-lois.justice.gc.ca.

Now the early appeal. Your client served an income tax objection on March 2, 2026 and has heard nothing. Ninety days run out at the end of May 31, 2026, so the appeal can go in from June 1 laws-lois.justice.gc.ca. For a GST/HST objection filed the same day, the 180 days run out at the end of August 29, 2026 laws-lois.justice.gc.ca. The Act puts no outer limit on that early appeal. The 90 day clock only starts once the CRA sends its decision, so if the decision arrives first, count from its date.

Informal or general procedure: the dollar limits

The informal procedure applies only if your client elects it in the notice of appeal and the amounts fit under subsection 18(1) of the Tax Court of Canada Act laws-lois.justice.gc.ca. The amount counted excludes interest laws-lois.justice.gc.ca.

Those limits and fees come from the Tax Court itself tcc-cci.ca, with the class thresholds on its FAQ tcc-cci.ca. Under the general procedure the fee is due within five days after the Registry receives the notice of appeal, and the notice must follow Form 21(1)(a). An informal appeal can be a letter that sets out the reasons and the relevant facts tcc-cci.ca.

Example: a reassessment adds $31,000 of federal tax and penalties for 2023. That's over $25,000, so the default is a general procedure appeal in Class A with a $250 fee. Your client can still use the informal procedure by stating in the notice of appeal that the appeal is limited to $25,000, which gives up the other $6,000 tcc-cci.ca. Interest on the $31,000 doesn't count toward the limit laws-lois.justice.gc.ca.

For GST/HST, the CRA says the same thing: an informal appeal must limit the amount under appeal to $50,000 canada.ca.

Missed the 90 days: the section 167 extension

The extension sits in section 167 of the Income Tax Act, not in the Tax Court of Canada Act, and your client applies to the Tax Court, not the CRA. The application states why the appeal wasn't started in time and is filed with three copies of the application and three copies of the notice of appeal laws-lois.justice.gc.ca.

Paragraph 167(5)(a) is the hard stop: within one year after the 90 days expire. Inside that year your client must also show four things under 167(5)(b) laws-lois.justice.gc.ca:

Condition (iv) is the one the objection extension under section 166.1 doesn't have. Your application has to show the appeal has merit, not just that the delay was excusable.

GST/HST mirrors this in section 305, with the same one year limit and the same four tests, the last being reasonable grounds for appealing the assessment laws-lois.justice.gc.ca.

Edge cases: large corporations, waivers and collection

A large corporation can only appeal the issues it properly raised in its objection, and only for the relief it specified there laws-lois.justice.gc.ca. A thin objection limits the appeal, so the objection is where that file is won or lost.

If your client waived in writing the right to object or appeal an issue, subsection 169(2.2) bars the appeal on that issue laws-lois.justice.gc.ca.

For income tax, the CRA normally holds off collecting the amounts in dispute until the Court mails its decision. If your client loses, collection resumes even if your client appeals further, though the CRA will accept security while that appeal runs canada.ca. GST/HST is harsher: the Minister may try to collect the full amount even though an objection or appeal is filed canada.ca. Interest keeps running on any balance that turns out to be owed; see the CRA overdue interest rate.

After the Tax Court: 30 days to the Federal Court of Appeal

A final judgment of the Tax Court is appealed to the Federal Court of Appeal within 30 days after it is pronounced, not counting days in July and August laws-lois.justice.gc.ca. The CRA states the same 30 days and the summer exclusion canada.ca.

Example: a judgment pronounced June 25, 2026 leaves 5 days in June (26 to 30). July and August don't count, so the other 25 days run September 1 to 25, and the notice of appeal is due September 25, 2026.

A judgment under the informal procedure can still be appealed, but only on six grounds in subsection 27(1.3): lack of jurisdiction, procedural unfairness, an error of law, a perverse or capricious finding of fact, fraud or perjury, or other conduct contrary to law laws-lois.justice.gc.ca.