CRA finds that a commitment fee earned by the assignor of a loan is consideration for the loan made by the assignee for HST purposes

Exempt financial services include (in para. (g) of the ETA definition of financial service) the lending of money and (in para. (l)) agreeing to provide an otherwise-listed financial service. Somewhat curiously, CRA considered a commitment fee paid to a lender to be exempted under para. (g) rather than (l) notwithstanding that the loan agreement had been assigned to a third party by the time the loan advance occurred. The key (or pretext) for this may be ETA s. 133, which provides that the entering into of an agreement to supply property shall be deemed to be a supply at that time of the property.

Neal Armstrong. Summary of 29 January 2015 Ruling 93176 under ETA s. 123(1) – financial service – para. (g).