6 September 1990 External T.I. 901915 F - Taxation of Status Indians

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.

SUBJECT: Taxation of Status Indians Covered by Treaty No. 8

This is in reply to your round trip memorandum of June 19, 1990 which has been referred to us.

You indicate that an organization has requested "tax free" status for all natives covered by Treaty No. 8, on the basis of the comments made by the Commissioners at page 6 of their report. Those comments were:

     "We assured them that the treaty would not lead to any forced interference with their mode of life, that it did  not open the way to any imposition of any tax, and that there was no fear of enforced military service."

The organization appears to have overlooked the rest of the Commissioners comments in that paragraph, namely:

     "We showed them that, whether treaty was made or not, they were subject to the law, bound to obey it, and liable to punishment for any infringements of it."

When the Commissioners' comments are read within the context of the whole paragraph it is by no means clear that they were suggesting any tax free status or exemption for Indians. In any event the comments of the Commissioners are not reflected in Treaty No. 8, which does not refer to taxation, it would require an Act of Parliament (see for example, section 87 of the Indian Act) to over-ride the provisions of the Income Tax Act. The Supreme Court of Canada has held that Treaties do not take precedence over federal legislation (see R. v. George (1966) S.C.R. 267).

We trust that this will be of assistance to you.

for DirectorBusiness and General DivisionRulings DirectorateLegislative and Intergovernmental Affairs Branch

c.c.      R. Cousineau Source Deductions Division