
Colby Cosh: Mark Carney's unstable environment
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The law implementing this tax was passed one year ago, and the entities subject to it were asked to provide special returns supported by vast quantities of accounting documentation. The deadline for the first payment was June 30 of this year. And on June 29 everyone was told, eh, don't bother. The new tax had become an inconvenient obstruction in trade negotiations with the United States, and the PM decided to instantaneously halt collection of the tax revenue — an action which the text of the law does provide for. He added that 'It doesn't make sense to collect tax from people and then remit [those payments] back.'
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This is, as it now turns out, exactly what will now have to happen. The Canada Revenue Agency admitted on Wednesday that some companies foolishly submitted returns and payments before D-Day minus one—and the agency confirmed that it will stop demanding and collecting payments now. (Or 'forthwith.' Why do I feel like I should say 'forthwith'?)
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But those who have already paid, it turns out, will have to wait for full parliamentary repeal of the DST legislation before they can get their money back. That relief, in turn, cannot be provided until Parliament comes back from summer vacation in mid-September.
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This will come as something of a surprise to assiduous readers of this column, who will recall that when the (minority) Liberal government proposed to increase capital-gains taxes late last year, RevCan was quite content to start collecting the increased sums in the absence of any legislation at all. In this case they have collected money according to the terms of a proper, legitimate statute — which was intentionally written so as to be capable of immediate guillotining of this kind, but not to provide for repayments of sums kindly contributed before the deadline. There will, of course, never be any refund of the money spent on researching and filling out DST returns, or on the prospective DST returns that will never be filed.
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