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Ottawa, December 2, 1999
1999-104

Legislation to Amend the Excise Tax Act and Other Acts Reintroduced with Some Additions

Related documents:

• Backgrounder.
• Explanatory Notes Relating to Amendments to the Excise Tax Act.... (Adobe Acrobat format -- 506,693 bytes).
• Notice of Ways and Means Motion to Amend the Excise Tax Act.... (Adobe Acrobat format -- 1,108,725 bytes).

Secretary of State (International Financial Institutions) Jim Peterson, on behalf of Finance Minister Paul Martin, today tabled in the House of Commons a detailed Notice of Ways and Means Motion to amend the Excise Tax Act and other acts. The Motion reintroduces measures tabled in the House of Commons on June 4, 1999, before the previous session of Parliament was prorogued. These measures relate mainly to the goods and services tax and harmonized sales tax (GST/HST). The Motion also includes additional sales tax measures announced on August 12 and October 8, 1999.

In addition, the legislation tabled today includes measures relating to other taxes and to customs tariffs, which were previously announced but were not part of the June 4, 1999 Motion. These include:

• amendments, proposed on November 5, 1999, to implement certain tobacco tax changes and to make permanent the existing 40-per-cent surtax on the profits of tobacco manufacturers;

• amendments to the Customs Tariff proposed on June 10, 1999, including the increase in the duty and tax exemption for returning residents who have been out of the country for at least seven days;

• amendments aimed at clarifying that employment insurance (EI) premiums and Canada Pension Plan (CPP) contributions are fully recoverable by the Crown in the event of a bankruptcy of the employer, including the measures announced on March 11, 1999; and

• technical corrections, announced on October 27, 1998, to provisions of the Budget Implementation Acts of 1997 and 1998 dealing with First Nations' sales taxes. A parallel amendment to the Budget Implementation Act, 1999 is also included.

The Motion incorporates some refinements and additions, described further in the attached backgrounder, to previously announced measures. With respect to the GST/HST, these changes relate to multi-employer pension plans, sales of accounts receivable, charities and the existing penalty under the Excise Tax Act for making false statements or omissions. Outside the sales tax area, refinements and additional consequential amendments are included in the package of measures announced on March 11, 1999 relating to the collection of CPP contributions and EI premiums.

Detailed explanatory notes relating to this legislation were also released today. The Notice of Ways and Means Motion and the explanatory notes are available free of charge on the Department of Finance Internet site, which is listed below. Printed copies of the Motion and explanatory notes are available at a cost of $19.00 and $22.00 respectively and may be obtained by calling the Department of Finance Distribution Centre at (613) 943-8665.

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