Words and Phrases - "carrier"
20 June 2024 GST/HST Ruling 247341 - Delivery services provided through […][the Platform]
The platform, through which consumers agree to make purchases of goods from merchants, makes deliveries of the purchased goods pursuant to a separate agreement between the platform and the purchasing consumer. If a consumer chooses delivery services, the platform will request and arrange for a delivery driver to undertake the delivery services and will charge the consumer directly for the delivery services. The delivery driver provides its services to the Platform, which the Platform provides to consumers, as described above, or to merchants, to deliver their goods.
CRA found that, under the agreement of the platform with the drivers, it was clear that the platform was the recipient of the delivery driver’s services irrespective of whether the platform was reselling those services to the consumer or the merchant.
In connection with ruling that delivery series supplied to the platform were zero-rated under s. VI-VII-11, CRA stated:
Interlining is the process whereby several carriers take part in the supply of a freight transportation service during the course of a continuous freight movement from the origin of the freight movement to its destination, but only one carrier invoices the shipper or the consignee. …
For a person to be considered a "carrier", the person need only assume liability as a supplier of a freight transportation service.
"Continuous freight movement" is defined in subsection 1(1) of Part VII of Schedule VI as the transportation of tangible personal property by one or more carriers to a destination specified by the shipper of the property, where all freight transportation services supplied by the carriers are supplied as a consequence of instructions given by the shipper of the property.
… [F]or [delivery services], a merchant (shipper) and a consumer (consignee) contracts with [the Platform] for the delivery of goods received from the shipper’s premises to the consignee. [The Platform] is the carrier that invoices and receives payment from the consignee or shipper and subcontracts the performance of the work to [delivery drivers] (another carrier) … .
Montecristo Jewellers Inc. v. The Queen, 2019 TCC 31, aff'd 2020 FCA 12
Customers would purchase watches or jewellery at Vancouver stores of the appellant in order to take them as gifts on their regular trips to China. The appellant’s staff would personally take the items to the airport (shortly before the flight departure) where they were inspected by a CBSA officer who would stamp a completed E15 form (a Canadian customs form evidencing exportation of the listed items) and then essentially ensure or monitor that the items were not handed over to the customer until shortly before boarding.
In finding that zero-rating was not available under s. 12(a), Lyons J stated (at paras 71, 78):
…[P]aragraph 12(a) … denotes an intention that a third party carrier would need to be engaged where the supplier “ships” the property to a destination outside Canada. This construction aligns with Parliament’s intent that exported goods are available for use (by the recipient or its designate) only outside Canada.
… As no third party carrier was engaged under a contract for carriage, I find that the appellant did not ship the Jewellery within the meaning of paragraph 12(a).