Solicitor-client privilege is the legal principle that any information shared between a lawyer and their client for the purpose of obtaining legal advice is strictly confidential. No one, not even a court, can compel the client or their lawyer to disclose what was said, the information shared, or the advice that was given.
By comparison, without the involvement of a lawyer, any information that you share with your accountant or financial planner and any advice they provide to you is not privileged, meaning that the Canada Revenue Agency can compel either you or your accountant to disclose in court what was said or communicated between you. That is why you’ll hear some lawyers say that your accountant is Canada Revenue Agency's best witness against you.
At The Canadian Tax Audit Protection Plan, we value and respect the relationship between you and your accountant or financial planner, and we recognize that your accountant or financial planner plays an important part in any audit or reassessment of you.
Canadian case law has generally established that in circumstances where an accountant or other third party acts as agent for their client for the purposes of obtaining legal advice from a lawyer or law firm, solicitor-client privilege extends to the communications between the client and the accountant, and between the accountant and client’s lawyer, to the extent that the communications between the client and the accountant were for the purposes of the client obtaining advice from their lawyer.
One of the benefits of being a Member of The Canadian Tax Audit Protection Plan is that if you are notified by the Canada Revenue Agency that they intend to audit you, you will have already retained Sixth Sphere to provide you with legal assistance and advice with respect to the audit. To the extent that you as a Member share information with your accountant or financial planner for the purpose of obtaining legal advice from Sixth Sphere, all such communications should be subject to solicitor-client privilege. In other words, neither you nor your accountant should be required by anyone, not even the Canada Revenue Agency or the Tax Court of Canada, to disclose what was said or communicated between you, provided what was said was for the purpose of obtaining legal advice from Sixth Sphere.