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Ottawa, December 10, 1998
1998-122

Proposed Sales Tax Amendments and Regulations Tabled

Related documents: 

• Notice of Ways and Means Motion to Amend the Excise Tax Act.
• Legislative Proposals, Draft Regulations and Explanatory Notes Relating to the Excise Tax Act - Adobe Acrobat Version (218,537 bytes).

Secretary of State (International Financial Institutions) Jim Peterson, on behalf of Finance Minister Paul Martin, today tabled in the House of Commons a Notice of Ways and Means Motion that proposes amendments to the Excise Tax Act relating to the goods and services tax and the harmonized sales tax (GST/HST). The proposed amendments are aimed at clarifying and refining the application of the GST and HST in the following areas:

• exports by common carrier, drop-shipments and certain imports;
• sale-leaseback arrangements and supplies of leased property in general;
• barter clubs;
• real property supplies and rebates;
• second-language training services supplied by vocational schools;
• health care services, particularly speech therapy, psychological services and hospital care services, as well as services in respect of medical devices;
• public service body rebates;
• gaming industry transactions;
• filing period thresholds;
• tax disclosure requirements;
• tax adjustments by suppliers;
• bad debt deductions;
• de minimis financial institutions;
• sale of an account receivable; and
• deemed trust rules.

Also released today are proposed regulations relating to the GST and HST. The Federal Book Rebate (GST/HST) Regulations are amended to prescribe additional organizations eligible to receive the 100-per-cent federal rebate of the GST or the federal component of the HST on certain reading materials and audio recordings of printed books. The additional rebate recipients are organizations whose primary purpose is the promotion of literacy. As well, amendments are proposed to the Games of Chance (GST/HST) Regulations and to the previously released draft Place of Supply (GST/HST) Regulations.

The accompanying publication containing the draft legislation and regulations, as well as explanatory notes, describes these measures in further detail. The "Announcement Date" referred to in the publication is today's date.

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For further information:

Notice of Ways and Means Motion to Amend the Excise Tax Act

That it is expedient to amend the Excise Tax Act in accordance with the proposals set out in the accompanying publication entitled "Legislative Proposals, Draft Regulations and Explanatory Notes Relating to the Excise Tax Act" dated December 1998.