2019

Form B13A, the Export Declaration form, will be eliminated from use as of June 30, 2020 and no longer accepted. The Canada Border Services Agency issued Customs Notice 19-14 Mandatory electronic export reporting for exporters on July 8, 2019, in which it announced the end of paper reporting.

By way of background, Canadian exports are treated as zero-rated supplies under Part V of Schedule VI to the Excise Tax Act (Canada)– provided certain requirements are met. 

Recently, the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal ruled, in a majority decision of 3 – 2, that the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act was constitutional.

Section 224 of the Excise Tax Act allows a supplier that has remitted GST/HST collectible from, but as yet unpaid by, a purchaser to sue that purchaser for the unpaid tax as if it were a debt owed to the supplier.

On May 10, 2019, the Canada Border Services Agency posted Customs Notice 19-08 “Final Safeguard Measures on the Importation of Certain Steel Goods.” Effective May 13, 2019, Canada will impose definitive safeguard duties on certain imported heavy plate and stainless steel wire for a period of three years.

In a unanimous decision delivered from the bench, the SCC recently reversed the decision of the Federal Court of Appeal in Canada v. Callidus Capital Corporation. The SCC agreed with the dissenting judge on the FCA panel that the original ruling of the Federal Court, dating from 2015, was correct.

MC carries on a property management services business. Between 2011 and 2013, MC entered into ten contracts with the owner(s) of various Ontario residential and commercial real properties.

Section 182 of the Excise Tax Act generally deems any payment made to a registrant as a consequence of a breach, modification, or cancellation of an agreement (other than as consideration for a supply), to be a taxable supply. This rule, in effect, means that a payment to a supplier by a recipient to compensate for a breach of an agreement to supply property or services, will generally be deemed to include GST/HST.

The Saskatchewan Ministry of Finance has reinstated a previously repealed provincial sales tax exemption on permanently mounted equipment used in the oil and gas industry. As a retroactive change, PST that had been paid on now-exempt equipment can be claimed back as refunds (as tax paid in error).

The Tax Court of Canada has dismissed a Canadian bank’s appeal in connection with GST/HST rebates for tax paid in error that were claimed by the bank.1