Technical Information Bulletin B-090 "GST/HST and Electronic Commerce" July 2002

Discussion of distinction between supplies of services and intangible personal property including:

Factors that generally indicate that a supply made by electronic means is one of intangible personal property are:

• a right in a product or a right to use a product for personal or commercial purposes is provided, such as:
  - intellectual property or a right to use intellectual property (e.g., a copyright); or
  - rights of a temporary nature (e.g., a right to view, access or use a product while on-line);
• a product is provided that has already been created or developed, or is already in existence;
• a product is created or developed for a specific customer, but the supplier retains ownership of the product; and
• a right to make a copy of a digitized product is provided.

Factors that generally indicate that a supply made by electronic means is a service are:

• the supply does not include the provision of rights (e.g., technical know-how), or if there is a provision of rights, the rights are incidental to the supply;
• the supply involves specific work that is performed by a person for a specific customer; and
• there is human involvement in making the supply.

Although traditionally, the place of performance has referred to where the person who is performing the service is physically present, where electronic commerce allows a service to be performed remotely (e.g., by remotely accessing a customer's computer located in Canada), it also is necessary to take into account the location of the customer's property.