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Are you developing innovative processes or products, undertaking experimentation or solving technological problems? If so, you may qualify to claim SR&ED tax credits. This Canadian federal government initiative is designed to encourage and support innovation in Canada. Our R&D professionals are a highly-trained, diverse team of practitioners that are engineers, scientists and specialized accountants.
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Keeping track of changes and developments in GST/HST, Quebec sales tax and other provincial sales taxes across Canada, can be a full-time job. The consequences for failing to adequately manage your organization’s sales tax obligations can be significant - from assessments, to forgone recoveries and cash flow implications, to customer or reputational risk.
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US corporate tax
The United States has a very complex and regulated tax environment, that may undergo significant changes. Cross-border tax issues could become even more challenging for Canadian businesses looking for growth and prosperity in the biggest economy in the world.
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In an increasingly flexible world, moving across the border may be more viable for Canadians and Americans; however, relocating may also have complex tax implications.
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International tax
While there is great opportunity for businesses looking to expand globally, organizations are under increasing tax scrutiny. Regardless of your company’s size and level of international involvement—whether you’re working abroad, investing, buying and selling, borrowing or manufacturing—doing business beyond Canada’s borders comes with its fair share of tax risks.
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Transfer pricing
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Tax Reporting & Advisory
The financial and tax reporting obligations of public markets and global tax authorities take significant resources and investment to manage. This requires calculating global tax provision estimates under US GAAP, IFRS, and other frameworks, and reconciling this reporting with tax compliance obligations.
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Creditor updates
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Certification – SOX
The corporate governance landscape is challenging at the best of times for public companies and their subsidiaries in Canada, the United States and around the world.
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Third party assurance
Naturally, clients and stakeholders want reassurance that there are appropriate controls and safeguards over the data and processes being used to service their business. It’s critical.
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ASPE Sec. 3041 Agriculture Understanding and applying the new ASPE Section 3041 AgricultureThe Canadian Accounting Standards Board (AcSB) has released new guidance on recognizing, measuring and disclosing biological assets and the harvested products of bio assets.
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Tax alert Agricultural Clean Technology ProgramThe Agricultural Clean Technology Program will provide financial assistance to farmers and agri-businesses to help them reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
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Tax alert ACT Program – Research and Innovation Stream explainedThe ACT Research and Innovation Stream provides financial support to organizations engaged in pre-market innovation.
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Tax alert ACT Program – Adoption Stream explainedThe ACT Adoption Stream provides non-repayable funding to help farmers and agri-business with the purchase and installation of clean technologies.
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Builders And Developers
Every real estate project starts with a vision. We help builders and developers solidify that vision, transform it into reality, and create value.
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Rental Property Owners And Occupiers
In today’s economic climate, it’s more important than ever to have a strong advisory partner on your side.
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Real Estate Service Providers
Your company plays a key role in the success of landlords, investors and owners, but who is doing the same for you?
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Mining
There’s no business quite like mining. It’s volatile, risky and complex – but the potential pay-off is huge. You’re not afraid of a challenge: the key is finding the right balance between risk and reward. Whether you’re a junior prospector, a senior producer, or somewhere in between, we’ll work with you to explore, discover and extract value at every stage of the mining process.
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Oil & gas
The oil and gas industry is facing many complex challenges, beyond the price of oil. These include environmental issues, access to markets, growing competition from alternative energy sources and international markets, and a rapidly changing regulatory landscape, to name but a few.
On June 21, 2018 the Supreme Court of the United States released its verdict on the landmark South Dakota v. Wayfair case, ruling that individual states have the ability to require that businesses collect sales taxes from consumers, should they meet a certain volume of sales in that state, regardless of whether the business itself has a physical presence in that state.
Background
This ruling overturns a previous case, Quill Corp. v. North Dakota, which ruled that a business would not be required to collect sales taxes on sales transactions in a particular state unless the business had a physical presence in that state. “Physical presence”, in this case, would typically have required that business to maintain an office space, warehouse, inventory, or employees/contractors in that state.
This precedent was set in 1992 and it applied primarily to catalogue sales. In the years since Quill Corp., the economic environment has changed significantly with the advent of e-commerce. As such, the argument made by South Dakota was that the previous ruling did not align with current consumer behaviours and local brick and mortar businesses were at a disadvantage by being required to collect sales taxes in cases where online retailers were not.
The Canadian perspective
Canadian businesses
While it may seem that this ruling will only affect businesses and residents of the United States, instituting reporting requirements that are based on volume of sales as opposed to physical presence will surely mean that Canadian businesses selling to the United States will also be impacted.
This becomes especially important due to the fact that more and more states are likely to draft similar legislation to South Dakota’s in the future, to access this revenue source that has been largely unavailable to them in the past. Currently, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, and Maine have implemented similar legislation and this number is likely to increase rapidly going forward.
Given that each individual state has the ability to create its own sales tax system (including thresholds for reporting as well as specific reporting requirements), a Canadian business selling to consumers in a wide range of states could be faced with a much larger compliance burden going forward.
As a result of these changing requirements, Canadian businesses will need to ensure they are aware of the specific compliance and reporting requirements of the state in which they are transacting and have accurate tracking systems to determine the volume of sales being made in each specific state.
For Canadian businesses transacting in North Dakota, we expect the State to begin enforcing this ruling later this year.
The Canadian system
While the federal and provincial sales tax systems in Canada do not adhere to the same physical presence standard as the United States, a supplier of goods and services in Canada will generally be required to register and remit for GST/HST if they are determined to have a permanent establishment in Canada or are considered to be carrying on business in Canada—a concept that is similar to physical presence.
Typically, in cases where a supplier is not required to be registered for Canadian sales tax (i.e. GST/HST or PST), the onus is on the purchaser to self-assess and remit for the relevant sales tax on a transaction—a process which is largely ignored by Canadian consumers.
From a Canadian perspective, it will be interesting to see whether the federal and provincial governments begin to move towards a system that would require more non-residents to register as a result of this change in the United States.
Recent changes in Quebec
One province that is leading the way in this regard is Quebec. In its recent provincial budget, the government of Quebec announced that it would be requiring non-resident suppliers (whether they be located in Canada or abroad) to register for the province’s Quebec Sales Tax system beginning in 2019—a change that has been commonly referred to as the “Netflix tax”.
Notably, this new registration requirement will apply to suppliers in the e-commerce sector as well as suppliers of certain digital property and service distribution platforms. The change makes Quebec the first Canadian province to impose such a requirement with regards to their provincial sales tax system.
It is anticipated that Quebec’s success in implementing this change will determine the likelihood of more provinces following suit in imposing similar requirements on non-resident suppliers.
For further information on the changing sales tax environment and how these changes might affect your business, please contact a member of the Grant Thornton National Sales Tax team.