What is the legal test for the validity of a purported partnership?

The determination with respect to the validity of each purported partnership will be made as of 2006, which is the first taxation year that is relevant in these appeals. A final conclusion by a court that a particular purported partnership was not a valid partnership in 2006 would mean that whatever the arrangement was between the numbered company and the particular investors, it was not a partnership in law. Therefore, it would not have been a partnership for the purposes of the Act (Backman v. The Queen, 2001 SCC 10, at para. 17).