James Alvarez
Position:
Senior Litigation Associate
Email:
james.alvarez@rosentaxlaw.com
Phone:
416 593-4357
Personal Experience
James was Jason Rosen’s articling student in 2017-2018 and practiced with the firm for most of the next year He left the firm in 2019, practicing tax law with several firms in Ontario and Alberta before re-joining in 2026.
James is a tax litigator. In the time between his tenures with Rosen & Associates, he was lead counsel in 50+ Tax Court appeals and 15+ Federal Court matters, alongside numerous audits, objections, disclosures, criminal tax proceedings, second-chair roles in tax appeals, and relief applications. He has experience with the breadth of Canadian tax disputes and particularly enjoys working on unreported income/net worth analysis cases.
He prides himself on his focussed, resolution-centred approach to audits and appeals. But when settlement is not possible, he has represented clients in precedent-setting decisions, including in the Federal Court of Appeal (where he led oral submissions in a successful transferee-assessment appeal) and the Alberta Court of King’s Bench (where his written submissions led to a novel position in Alberta estate law, winning the case).
He also provides tax planning services for individuals, businesses, and estates, along with strategic advice to clients who are concerned about their exposure to CRA.
James was born in Yellowknife and grew up in Calgary, before eventually finding his way to Toronto. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Philosophy from Acadia University in 2014, where he received the John Davies prize in economics, placed on the Dean’s List, and was a tutor and teaching assistant in Economics. He studied law at Queen’s University, graduating in 2017, where he received scholarships from two Canadian law firms, the course prize in Advanced Constitutional Law, and was a teaching assistant in Administrative Law and edited the Queen’s Law Journal. He has completed CPA Canada’s In-Depth tax program.
James comments on tax topics of the day, having been featured in Canadian Tax Focus, Law360 Canada, and Video Tax News, some of which is featured in the annotated Practitioner’s Income Tax Act. He also publishes an occasional tax blog.
Outside of tax, James enjoys playing golf, spending time with his son Bruce, and playing golf with his son Bruce.