17 January 1990 Ministerial Letter 59188 F - Interpretation Bulletin IT-357R2

Please note that the following document, although believed to be correct at the time of issue, may not represent the current position of the CRA.
Prenez note que ce document, bien qu'exact au moment émis, peut ne pas représenter la position actuelle de l'ARC.

Dear Sirs:

Re:  Interpretation Bulletin IT-357R2

This is in reply to your letter of November 29, 1989 in which you asked for clarification of certain amendments to paragraph 5 of the above-mentioned bulletin under the heading "Location of Course".

In particular you are concerned that courses taken on islands such as Vancouver Island, Cape Breton and Newfoundland may be excluded under our interpretation of the wording "outside continental North America".  We wish to assure you that such locations would qualify within the meaning of the above description.

If you will refer to the enclosed excerpt from Websters New Geographical Dictionary under the heading North America such locales fall within the general description of the continent of North America.

Although the word "continental" in the phrase "continental North America" was merely carried forward to paragraph 5 of IT-357R2 from paragraph 10 of IT-357R where it had formerly appeared, it may be that its use is confusing.  The intent of the paragraph is to give an indication of the kinds of claims the Department regards as unreasonable.  Of course, the reasonableness of a claim in any particular case will depend on all the facts of the case.

We trust our comments will be of assistance and thank for drawing this ambiguity to our attention.

Yours truly,

for DirectorBusiness and General DivisionSpecialty Rulings DirectorateLegislative and Intergovernmental Affairs Branch