On May 16, 2016, TEI's Canadian Commodity Tax Committee held a liaison meeting with the British Columbia Ministry of Finance. Jordan Goss, Executive Director of the Consumer Tax Programs Branch; Ann Foy, Strategic Advisor of the Tax Policy Branch; Satish Perhar, Executive Director of the Vancouver District Office; and Bob Scott, Policy and Legislative Analyst of Program Services, attended on behalf of the Ministry.
TEI's delegation discussed a variety of issues with the Ministry, including administrative materials delivered from outside of BC; the treatment of partnerships as persons for PST purposes; the treatment of exports shipped via customer's conveyance; exemptions for safety and pollution control equipment; carbon tax issues; retroactive rulings; re-usable containers used in multiple jurisdictions; children’s clothing exemptions; cloud and managed services, including Software, Infrastructure & Platform as a Service (SaaS, IaaS, PaaS); solely for resale thresholds; and the direction of the Ministry’s Commission on Tax Competitiveness.
Of particular note, the Ministry addressed TEI's August 2015 submission. The Ministry confirmed that taxpayers who have relied on an incorrect ruling and not collected tax may use a due diligence defence to eliminate the penalty equivalent to uncollected tax. This defence will not, however, be available for non-payment of tax.
TEI Canadian Commodity Tax Committee member Brian Moul coordinated the meeting, which was also attended by Committee Vice Chair Carole Levesque and incoming Committee Chair, David Card. TEI Tax Counsel Pilar Mata assisted the members with the preparation of the agenda.