Lawsuit Against Maple Leafs Star John Tavares Reaches Surprising Conclusion

While the Toronto Maple Leafs and former captain John Tavares continue to work on a contract extension, Tavares has scored a major victory in court.

Tavares and his camp had been arguing that a $15 million signing bonus he received from the Maple Leafs back in 2018 was subject to a 15 percent tax rate, while the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) claimed he owed about $8 million of the signing bonus in taxes.

However, as reported by David Alter of The Hockey News, Tavares' appeal of the CRA's decision was adjourned last week, and it looks as though it won't be coming back to court.

Sine Die in court terms means the proceedings have been adjourned and there's no date set for it to continue. While not a definitive win for Tavares, the sine die ruling means that a continuation of the court case is highly unlikely.

The ruling is important for Canadian teams looking to compete with American teams that have lower, or no income tax at all.

The shelving of the case means one less aggravation for Tavares and the Maple Leafs as they push to get a new contract in place for the veteran that will hopefully include some kind of hometown discount as Toronto attempts to be big players on the free agent and/or trade market.