7 April 2016 Interpretation 167824 Certifications and Examinations

A non-profit professional association developed (and authorized the instructors for) continuing education for-credit courses that are offered at certain post-secondary institutions. Individuals may apply to the association to be authorized to use a particular professional designation after completing a series of the courses. The association offers Exam Y which is not recognized by any regulatory body and issues Certificate Y to individuals who pass the exam.

In finding that the supply of the exam was not exempted, CRA stated:

…[A]n organization which has not been empowered by a legislative statute to regulate a particular profession or trade will not be considered to be a regulatory body for the purposes of section 6 of Part III.

As there is no federal or provincial statute that constitutes or empowers [the Association] to regulate a particular profession or trade, and [the Association] is not empowered to bestow a particular professional or trade accreditation or designation, [the Association] is not a "regulatory body" as defined in section 1 of Part III of Schedule V.

In order for a supply of a certificate or an examination to be exempt under section 6 of Part III of Schedule V, the supply must be made by a professional or trade association, government, vocational school, university, public college or a regulatory body, and it must be in respect of a course, or in respect of an accreditation or designation that leads to or maintains or upgrades a professional or trade accreditation or designation recognized by a regulatory body. …

… Based on the information provided, we are unable to determine whether [the Association] is a professional or trade association.

However, even if [the Association] were a professional or trade association, … neither the [Designation X] certification nor the …[Certification Y] is recognized by any regulatory body. Therefore, section 6 of Part III of Schedule V would not apply to the service of supplying a certificate authorizing the use of [Designation X] or administering the [Certificate Y] examination. As such, both of these services provided by [the Association] will be subject to the GST/HST, unless exempt under some other provision of the ETA.

A non-profit professional association developed (and authorized the instructors for) continuing education for-credit courses that are offered at certain post-secondary institutions. Individuals may apply to the association to be authorized to use a particular professional designation after completing a series of the courses. The association offers Exam Y which is not recognized by any regulatory body and issues Certificate Y to individuals who pass the exam.

In the course of finding that the provision of the exam and the certificate was not exempted under Sched. V, Pt. III, s. 6, CRA stated:

In order to be regarded as a regulatory body, a person must be constituted or empowered under a particular statute of the legislature of a province for the express purposes of acting as a regulatory body for a particular profession or trade. In other words, an organization which has not been empowered by a legislative statute to regulate a particular profession or trade will not be considered to be a regulatory body for the purposes of section 6 of Part III.

As there is no federal or provincial statute that constitutes or empowers [the Association] to regulate a particular profession or trade, and [the Association] is not empowered to bestow a particular professional or trade accreditation or designation, [the Association] is not a “regulatory body” ... .