The HST Blog : Canada Harmonized Sales Tax Lawyer Cyndee Todgham Cherniak for Assessments, PST & RST Issues in Ontario, British Columbia & Quebec

The Globe & Mail is reporting that Prime Minister Harper & Premier Jean Charest may sign a Comprehensive Integrated Tax Coordination Agreement (CITCA) (also known as an HST Agreement) on Friday, September 30, 2011.  In an article entitled "Ottawa, Quebec poised to ink $2.2 billion HST deal", it appears that the agreement promised during the election campaign has been negotiated.

The question for sales tax practitioners is: How different is this CITCA going to be from the model version used with Ontario, British Columbia and Nova Scotia?  It appears that Canada has agreed to a significant change.  Revenue Quebec will continue to collect the tax in Quebec.

However, will Quebec loose the QST and adopt the HST?  In other words, will Quebec lose its naming rights?

When is the implementation date?  Businesses will need time to make necessary changes.

Also, will the HST rate go up, go down or stay the same? One benefit of harmonization is that QST should no longer be payable on the GST included amount.

What point of sale rebates (provincial exemptions from PVAT) will be selected by Quebec?  Will Quebec be restricted to point of sale rebates on only 5% or will they be permitted a higher percentage of coverage for point of sale rebates?

What will happen to zero-rated financial services?  Currently, under the QST regime, many financial services are zero-rated.  Under the GST regime, many financial services are exempt.  Zero-rated is better than exempt because the intermediary financial institutions are entitled to full input tax credits on inputs purchased for use in commercial activities (including zero-rated activities). A shift from zero-rated supplies to exempt supplies will have a significant effect on financial institutions.

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Yesterdau. I wrote a post entitled "Do You Have A Complaint About The Canada Revenue Agency?" and mentioned the Taxpayers Bill of Rights.  I provided a link to the CRA web-site.  Here are the Rights:

1. You have the right to receive entitlements and to pay no more and no less than what is required by law.

2. You have the right to service in both official languages.

3. You have the right to privacy and confidentiality.

4. You have the right to a formal review and a subsequent appeal.

5. You have the right to be treated professionally, courteously, and fairly.

6. You have the right to complete, accurate, clear, and timely information.

7. You have the right, as an individual, not to pay income tax amounts in dispute before you have had an impartial review.

8. You have the right to have the law applied consistently.

9. You have the right to lodge a service complaint and to be provided with an explanation of our findings.

10. You have the right to have the costs of compliance taken into account when administering tax legislation.

11. You have the right to expect us to be accountable.

12. You have the right to relief from penalties and interest under tax legislation because of extraordinary circumstances.

13. You have the right to expect us to publish our service standards and report annually.

14. You have the right to expect us to warn you about questionable tax schemes in a timely manner.

15. You have the right to be represented by a person of your choice.

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If the answer is 'YES", there is a form for that & and address to send the complaint.  On September 21, 2011, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) released RC4420 Information on CRA - Service Complaints Includes form RC-193, Service-Related Complaints.  Form RC-193 can also be found separately.

I know you are skeptical that filing a complaint will resolve the differences you have with the CRA.  That being said, the CRA has a process for submitting complaints about their service, you can use it.  At the very least, you may feel better by completing the form - even if you never submit it.  The writing and venting process may help you see both sides of the issue.

The complaints process relates to quality of service.  The CRA takes the position that it provides a service to taxpayers.  Put aside the argument that you do not want their audit services.  Try to look at the issue from the CRA's perspective (even if that is difficult on the one hand and goes against your logical brain on the other).  They are providing services.  The Minister issued a Taxpayers' Bill of Rights and needs to know if the CRA is living up to the standards that they set for the services they deliver to the public.

"Service" refers to the quality and timeliness of the work performed by the CRA.  The bases for a complaint include, but are not limited to:

•undue delays;
•poor or misleading information;
•staff behaviour; or
•mistakes, which could result from misunderstandings, omissions or oversights.

These service elements may be considered in the context of the Taxpayers Bill of Rights.

If you decide to fill out Form RC-193 (fillable version), you may send it to the Complaints office at

CRA - Service Complaints
National Intake Centre
PO Box 8000
Shawinigan-Sud QC G9N 0A6
CANADA

Fax: 1-866-388-7371 (within Canada or United States)
Fax: 819-536-0701(outside Canada or United States)

After you write your complaint, put it in a drawer for 24-48 hours before running off to the fax machine or post office.  You may wish to rewrite parts of the narrative portion before submitting the complaint.  You certainly do not want to make matters worse for yourself.  if you have been treated unfairly, you may wish to ask legal counsel for assistance as it may be prudent to use the complaints process to preserve legal rights.

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Last Week, the Canada Revenue Agency ("CRA") released GST/HST Info Sheet GI-122 "The GST/HST Implications of the Acquisition of Solar Panels Under the micro Feed-In Tariff Program in Ontario" to clarify when a person must register for GST/HST purposes and when input tax credits ("ITCS") will be allowed.  The new Info Sheet follows a period of uncertainty during which auditors would not allow ITC claims (and auditors questioned whether homeowners in the Micro FIT were permitted to register for GST/HST purposes).

Under the Micro Feed-In Tariff Program in Ontario, homeowners may install solar panels on their roof or elsewhere on their property, engage in activity of electricity generation, and engage in the commercial activity of selling the electricity to the Province of Ontario.  The issue is whether the homeowner is renovating used residential property (where no ITCs would be allowed) or purchasing solar panels and other equipment to manufacture energy and sell that energy to the province.

The Info Sheet determines that the homeowner (participating in the Ontario Micro FIT program) must register for GST/HST purposes if he/she receives more that $30,000 per year from the province under the program.  If the homeowner does not make $30,000 under the program, he/she may be a "small supplier" and would not be required to register for GST/HST purposes.  Small suppliers may voluntarily register for GST/HST purposes.

If a homeowner registers for GST/HST purposes, he/she must charge, collect and remit GST/HST on the money received from the Ontario government under the FIT Program.  They also must be careful to charge GST/HST on other taxable supplies (e.g., garage sales, sales of used cars, etc.).

If a registered homeowner purchases equipment to be used in connection with energy generation, he/she may claim ITCs and recover the GST/HST paid on those purchases.  However, these claims are subject to an audit by the CRA.  As a result, homeowners must be careful to not use the CRA as a personal ATM machine.  In other words, the CRA will scrutinize ITC claims to ensure unrelated home repairs and other personal expenses do not give rise to ITC claims.

For more information, there is a complex / high level opinion given by Torys LLP to the Solar Industries Association that has been posted on the Internet. For even more information, please go to the Solar Industries Association web-site.

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I have recently written a blog post on various definition phrases for HST.  It is early this morning, this one may not be the best one that I have come up with.  Since the topic is a hot topic and there is negativity, I thought I would add "Hot Spoiled Tomato" - at least for British Columbia. 

So why a tomato?

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The city of Timmins is a northern Ontario city who is using its municipal voice to request an harmonized sales tax (PVAT portion) point of sale exemption on heat & hydro.  The Daily Press reports in an article entitled "City support resolution fighting HST" that the City of Timmins endorsed a resolution calling on the Ontario government to exempt items of necessity, such as gas and utilities.

It would be preferable if the cities would use proper language as they are not looking for an exemption.  The government of Ontario does not have power to amend the Excise Tax Act (Canada) to add an exemption.  Ontario does have the power to grant point of sale rebates. A point of sale rebate on a taxable good is better than an exemption because suppliers of exempt property and services are not entitled to claim input tax credits in connection with business inputs related to the exempt supply.

The resolution endorsed by Timmins was prepared by North Bay. North Bay's resolution has been forwarded to other Northern Ontario cities including Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie and Thunder Bay.

Maybe Timmins could seek Shania Twain's voice and the message will get more press.

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Yesterday I shared with you the Bloomberg Businessweek article "Buy American and Fairer Trade Can Solve Job Woes: Alan Tonelson".  In this article, Alan Tonelson suggests that the United States should impose additional duties at the border on goods coming from a country with a value-added tax.  Canadians should be concerned because under the goods and services tax ("GST") and harmonized sales tax ("HST") regime, most exported goods are zero-rated. 

If the United States Administration followed Mr. Tonelson's advice, they would arguably be in breach of their most-favoured-nation (MFN) obligations at the World Trade Organization ("WTO") and in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).  Simply put, the MFN concept focuses on non-discrimination.  In particular, goods at the border must be treated the same.  As a result, the United States cannot impose higher tariffs on some goods at the border and lower tariffs on other goods (except there may be lower duties if there is a free trade agreement that satisfied the requirements of GATT Article XXIV).

The U.S. is not allowed to charge a 13% tariff on all goods from Ontario, a 12% tariff on goods from B.C., a 5% tariff on goods from Alberta, a different tariff on goods from the EU, a different tariff on goods from Australia, etc. in retaliation of zero-rating. The U.S. is not allowed to increase its tariff rates on goods from some countries (VAT countries) and not raise tariffs on goods from other countries (non-VAT countries).  To be clear, under the GATT, 1947, the United States cannot increase tariffs from their current MFN bound levels against any WTO country. Under the NAFTA, the United States cannot raise tariffs against Canadian goods above the levels agreed in the NAFTA (most NAFTA tariff rates for Canadian goods are now duty-free or 0%).

There are rules in the WTO Subsidies and Countervailing Measures Agreement  ("SCM Agreement") that would allow the United States to impose countervailing duties, but only after a trade remedy process. However, any attempt to impose countervailing duties against Canadian good as a result of zero-rating would undoubtedly lead to a challenge at the WTO under the Dispute Settlement Understanding.

The United States should be mindful of its international obligations while dealing with its domestic financial issues.  Options that breach international obligations must be taken off the table as trade wars with each and every country that imposes a VAT will not be helpful to global recovery efforts.

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In an recent article in Bloomberg Businessweek printed online on September 18, 2011 entitled "Buy American and Fairer Trade Can Solve Job Woes: Alan Tonelson", Canadians are put on notice that the U.S. is taking aim at value-added tax ("VAT") regimes that do not charge VAT on exported goods. Canada's goods and services tax ("GST") and harmonized sales tax ("HST") regime zero-rates exports.  Zero-rating means that Canada imposes GST/HST at the rate of 0% instead of the applicable GST/HST rate on domestic transactions.  This means that Canada may soon have a significant Buy America problem.

Alan Tonelson's article has a subtitle "VATs Are Protectionist", which is a signal that what follows is not going to be friendly.  Some of the points made by Tonelson are:

• New tariffs should be imposed on countries with VATs;
• VATs contribute to U.S. trade deficits;
• VATs raise the price of imports because they are imposed on domestic consumption 9thereby making U.S. goods more expensive);
• VATs subsidize exports (because governments do not impose VAT on exports); and
• NO exceptions from the new import tariffs should be allowed for products made by U.S. trading partners who have a VAT regime.

If this idea moves into law, Canada and the EU countries, Australia, New Zealand and a number of other significant trading partners would be affected.

While I hope that this latest protectionist rhetoric does not go anywhere, Canadian businesses need to be concerned about this issue.  Canadian businesses need to communicate their concerns with the Canadian government and become engaged on this topic. In addition, businesses need to prepare and diversify their export base because it is clear that the U.S. market may become more unfriendly to Canadian manufactured goods.

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A taxpayer who has filed an appeal with the Tax Court of Canada that is within the "general procedure " criteria, must seek leave of the court to be represented by a non-lawyer (e.g., an accountant, a book-keeper, an executive, a director, a consultant, etc.).  The recent case of 1069616 Alberta Ltd. v. The Queen addresses this issue.

The Tax Court allowed the company in this case to be represented by a non-lawyer.  However, it was clear that the Tax Court does not grant permission without considering the request.  Asking for leave does not guarantee the requested response. 

The appellant must seek leave of the Tax Court and cannot merely show up with their chosen non-lawyer representative.  The Tax Court of Canada Rules, General Procedure apply and must be followed.  Many small taxpayers are not aware of these rules, which are important procedural rules for general procedure appeals (which are the larger appeals and different than informal procedure appeals).

In 1069616 Alberta Ltd., the Tax Court of Canada carefully reviews the history of the applicable rule as to when a non-lawyer can represent a party in a general procedure appeal.  It is worth reading to ensure that the Tax Court will grant the request if and when asked.

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