In the latest Excise and GST/HST News – No. 108 of September 2020, the CRA has clarified certain issues regarding, among other things, the Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance Program (CECRA) and the GST/HST treatment of manual osteopathic services.
1. Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance Program (CECRA)
- There is no GST/HST applicable with respect to payments received by the commercial property owners from CMHC under the CECRA program.
- The forgivable loans provided by CMHC under the CECRA program are exempt supplies of financial services.
- The rent reduction agreement is an amendment to the lease agreement between the commercial property owner and the impacted small business tenant.
- Pursuant to section 232 of the ETA, in this case where a commercial property owner agrees to refund or credit an amount of GST/HST already collected, or agrees to adjust the GST/HST applicable to the reduction of the monthly gross rent payable, the commercial property owner must issue a credit note, meeting the prescribed requirements that are set out in the Act, to the impacted small business tenant.
- In other words, if the landlord does not issue a credit note in respect of the tax adjustment, the amount of GST/HST to be remitted will not take into account this adjustment to the consideration and the total sales tax will have to be remitted to the CRA.
2. The application of GST/HST to manual osteopathic services
- Supplies of osteopathy services rendered by manual osteopathic practitioners do not meet the conditions for exemption in paragraph 7(f) of Part II of Schedule V as the osteopathic services are not rendered by a practitioner of the service. Such services are subject to the GST/HST at the rate of 5%, 13% or 15% depending on the province in which the supply is made when the supplier is a registrant.
It should be noted that other topics have also been covered in this publication, including :
- Application of GST to increased provincial tax rate in British Columbia on vapour products
- The supply of epinephrine – Patterson Dental Canada Inc. v Canada
- Additional First Nations implement the First Nations Goods and Services Tax
- Excise duty rate adjustments – April 1, 2020 reminder
- Fuel charge rate adjustments – April 1, 2020 reminder
- Fuel charge changes for New Brunswick – April 1, 2020 reminder
- Application of the HST to the New Brunswick carbon tax
- GST/HST acceptance of electronic signatures
- Prescribed rates of interest
- What’s new in publications
For more information, you can consult the publication by following this link.