News of Note
CRA indicates that GAAR applies to an avoidance of the debt forgiveness rules
Email this ContentIn the same ruling referred to below, CRA indicated that the general anti-avoidance rule applied where a purchase by "ProfitCo" of the equity of "LossCo" from an arm's length vendor was structured so as to avoid the application of the debt forgiveness rules to some subordinated debt owing by LossCo to an affiliate of the vendor. Before the sale, ProfitCo lent money to the vendor who invested that money in shares of LossCo, which then paid off the the sub debt. The loan by ProfitCo to the vendor was then repaid by way of set-off against the purchase price for the vendor's shares of LossCo. The effect of the transactions was that the vendor group received the sale proceeds mostly in the form of repayament of the sub debt (so that there was no debt forgiveness) rather than as equity sale proceeds.
CRA stated that these "transactions are essentially the same as transactions that the GAAR committee previously determined resulted in an abuse of section 80."
Neal Armstrong. Summary of 2011 Ruling 2011-0392171R3 under s. 245(4).
CRA finds that two deposit-taking businesses satisfied the similar business test in the loss-streaming rule
CRA ruled that a deposit-taking business of a financial institution that was acquired by and amalgamated with another financial institution would satisfy the similar business test in the loss-streaming rule in s. 111(5)(a), so that its non-capital losses could be utilized. This ruling likely turns on the proposition that the profitable Amalco financial "services" business would entail the "rendering of similar services" to those for the acquired business.
Neal Armstrong. Summary of 2011 Ruling 2011-0392171R3 under s. 111(5)(a).
CRA rules that group homes are not health care facilities for GST purposes
A registrant operated "group homes" whose main function was to give on-going life skills training and life-long learning and support in developmental skills to people with significant developmental disabilities (provided principally by psychologists and social workers). CRA ruled that, unlike nursing homes, which provide 24-hour nursing support, the group homes did not meet the definition of "health care facility" for GST purposes.
Scott Armstrong. Summaries of 13 September 2011 Ruling Case No. 102589 under ETA Sched. V, Part 2, s. 1 and s. 259(1).
CRA finds that a supply of a service may be made for GST/HST purposes by other than the service provider
A recent ruling illustrates an interpretive approach of CRA under which it can consider X to be the supplier of a service for GST and HST purposes even though none of the service actually is performed by X.
A for-profit corporation which charges the families of non-resident minor children a fee for arranging for them to study at a Canadian school district and to be billeted at Canadian families, and pays tuition directly to the school district, was found to be earning its fees (through non-resident agents) from the non-resident families as consideration for an exempt educational service.
Neal Armstrong. Summary of 22 September 2011 Ruling 129475 under ETA, Sched. V, Part III, s. 9.
CRA confirms that the employer GST or HST liability for provision of administrative services to a pension plan potentially can be avoided through using a third-party servicer
CRA considers that an employer is required to self-assess itself for GST or HST under s. 172.1 on the "fair market value" of administrative services it provides to a pension plan for its employees, even if those services all are quite minor (e.g., handling contributions out of payroll), without giving guidance as to how such fair market value is to be determined. On the other hand, there generally will be no GST/HST liability under s. 172.1 where the employer receives a single supply of payroll processing services from a third party notwithstanding that the provision of administrative services to the pension plan is included.
Neal Armstrong Summaries of 19 October 2011 Interpretation 133414 and 19 October 2011 Interpretation 130384 under ETA, .s 172.1(1) - pension activity and summary of 19 October 2011 Interpretation 130384 under ETA, s. 172.1(5).
CRA no longer is scuppering supplier GST/HST rebate applications through automatic assessments
CRA has confirmed that since April 2011 it no longer has been following a practice (prevailing during the previous four years) of assessing GST or HST returns even where there was no adjustment and there was payment with the return of the net tax shown as owing. As also noted by CRA, the effect of assessing a return is that the registrant is precluded from filing for a rebate of tax remitted in error in that month (e.g., where more tax was remitted than charge to its customers) - and the registrant must instead file a timely notice of objection or apply for a reassessment under s. 296(1).
Neal Armstrong. Summary of 2 September 2011 Interpretation 137200 under ETA s. 261(2).
Whitehorse - Tax Court finds that allowances for recreational travel did not qualify for a GST rebate
The City of Whitehorse gave certain employees travel allowances to pay for return flights to Edmonton or Vancouver, which the employees used for personal purposes. These expenses were not sufficiently connected with the taxpayer's activities to qualify for a GST rebate under ss. 174(a)(iv) and 259(4) of the ETA, notwithstanding that they helped Whitehorse attract and retain employees who otherwise might not work in a remote community.
Scott Armstrong. Summary of City of Whitehorse v. The Queen, 2012 TCC 298, under ETA s. 174.
CRA reconfirms that "directly or indirectly" wording in s. 95(2)(a) covers back-to-back loans
CRA has reconfirmed (referring to a published statement of Wally Conway at the Department of Finance) that "the words "directly or indirectly" in subparagraph 95(2)(a)(ii) are meant to deal with back-to-back loan arrangments," so that, for example, interest paid by a CFA (which is engaged in an active business) indirectly "through" an intermediate non-resident company under such a back-to back loan arrangment to a CFA Finco may be recharacterized as active business income to Finco. However, that policy was not applicable here to an interest-bearing loan made by Finco to the intermediate company (the non-resident parent of Canco) because the loan, in turn, made by the parent to the CFA carrying on an active business was non-interest bearing.
Neal Armstrong. Summary of 29 June 2012 Memorandum 2012-0441601I7 under s. 95(2)(a)(ii)(B).
Dundee Industrial REIT IPO will use a trust-on-partnership structure
Another Dundee REIT (Dundee Industrial REIT) is proposed. It will hold a portfolio of Canadian light industrial rental properties through a subsidiary LP (Industrial Partnership). Exchangeable Class B units of Industrial Partnership will be held by a subsidiary LP of Dundee REIT, which will have previously transferred properties into Industrial Partnership on a rollover basis in exchange for both Class A and Class B units, then will have sold the Class A units to the REIT. (This ordering appears to have Ontario land transfer tax benefits.)
This is a departure from quite a number of other REITs which use a trust-on-trust rather than trust-on-LP structure.
Neal Armstrong. Summary of preliminary prospectus for IPO by Dundee Industrial REIT under REIT and LP offerings.
Mertrux - UK Upper Tribunal reverses a broad interpretation given to "goodwill"
The additional amount received by a Mercedes dealer for the early termination of its dealership was found to be consideration for the surrender of a contractual right (giving rise to capital gains treatment) rather than for goodwill (for which rollover treatment was available) - notwithstanding that Daimler-Chrysler (UK) Ltd. arranged for this additional amount to be paid directly to the dealer by the third party purchaser of the dealership.
This case could be relevant to the interpretation of s. 167.1 of the Excise Tax Act (no GST on the consideration for the purchase of a business or business division that is attributable to goodwill) and also to the Canadian income tax distinction between a capital gain and an eligible capital amount - although it is hard to be sure about the latter point because following some amendments to get rid of the "mirror image rule" (see Toronto Refiners) that distinction now is utterly circular: under ss. 14(1) and 14(5) - CEC-(E), an eligible capital amount is 1/2 of an amount receivable on capital account in respect of a business that is not included in computing a capital gain; and under s. 39(1)(a)(i), a capital gain does not include gain from the disposition of an eligible capital property!
Neal Armstrong. Summaries of R & C Commrs v. Mertrux, [2012] UKUT 274 (Tax and Chancery Chamber) under s. 14(5) - CEC (E) and ETA, s. 167.1.