CRA follows Elim Housing in finding that an Ontario nursing home qualified for enhanced GST/HST rebates

Elim Housing found that a B.C. long-term care facility, whose residents mostly had dementia, severely impaired mobility, complex medical issues and a life expectancy of between three months and three years, was making "facility supplies," so that it was eligible for the enhanced 83% federal public service body rebate. This likely overruled 3 July 2012 Ruling 109082 (re a nursing home). CRA has now (in response to a ruling request dated back in July 2011) ruled that an Ontario nursing home (the “Facility”) that was operated by a registered charity qualified for the federal 83% PSB rebate as well as the Ontario 87% PSB rebate. CRA stated:

After comparing the services and the care provided at the Facility to its residents to the elements described in Elim, we are of the view that facility supplies are provided at the Facility by the Corporation.

The Elim elements described by CRA included:

• physicians visited residents frequently (e.g., roughly on a bi-weekly basis); …
• registered nurses were at the facility at all times, and nurses were in regular communication with physicians for prescription or advice;
• the facility received funding for 2.8 hours of care per resident per day …;
• the care provided was of a different type than ordinary assistance with activities of daily living that a more robust individual might require.

Neal Armstrong. Summaries of 24 July 2017 Ruling 138196 under s. 259(1) – facility supply and s. 259(14).