Excise Act

Marginal note:Definitions

• 111 (1) The following definitions apply in this section.

  action

  action means an action to collect a tax debt of a person and includes a proceeding in a court and anything done by the Minister under any provision of this Part. (action)

  legal representative

  legal representative of a person means a trustee in bankruptcy, an assignee, a liquidator, a curator, a receiver of any kind, a trustee, an heir, an administrator, an executor, a liquidator of a succession, a committee, or any other like person, administering, winding up, controlling or otherwise dealing in a representative or fiduciary capacity with any property, business, commercial activity or estate that belongs or belonged to, or that is or was held for the benefit of, the person or the person’s estate. (représentant légal)

  tax debt

  tax debt means any amount payable by a person under this Act. (dette fiscale)

• Marginal note:Although no account or return rendered

  (2) All duties of excise or licence fees payable under this Act are recoverable at any time after they ought to have been accounted for and paid, whether an account of quantity of the goods or commodities or a true return of the utensils, tools and apparatus on which the duties or licence fees are payable has or has not been made as required by this Act.

• Marginal note:Debts to Her Majesty

  (3) A tax debt is a debt due to Her Majesty and is recoverable as such with full costs of suit in the Federal Court or any other court of competent jurisdiction or in any other manner provided by this Act.

• Marginal note:No actions after limitation period

  (4) The Minister may not commence an action to collect a tax debt after the end of the limitation period for the collection of the tax debt.

• Marginal note:Limitation period

  (5) The limitation period for the collection of a tax debt of a person

  • (a) begins

    • (i) if the tax debt became payable after March 3, 2004, on the earliest day on which the Minister can commence an action to collect that tax debt, and

    • (ii) if subparagraph (i) does not apply and the tax debt was payable on March 4, 2004, or would have been payable on that date but for a limitation period that otherwise applied to the collection of the tax debt, on March 4, 2004; and

  • (b) ends, subject to subsection (9), on the day that is 10 years after the day on which it begins.

• Marginal note:Limitation period restarted

  (6) The limitation period described in subsection (5) for the collection of a tax debt of a person restarts (and ends, subject to subsection (9), on the day that is 10 years after the day on which it restarts) on any day, before it would otherwise end, on which

  • (a) the person acknowledges the tax debt in accordance with subsection (7); or

  • (b) the Minister commences an action to collect the tax debt.

• Marginal note:Acknowledgement of tax debts

  (7) A person acknowledges a tax debt if the person

  • (a) promises, in writing, to pay the tax debt;

  • (b) makes a written acknowledgement of the tax debt, whether or not a promise to pay can be inferred from the acknowledgement and whether or not it contains a refusal to pay; or

  • (c) makes a payment, including a purported payment by way of a negotiable instrument that is dishonoured, on account of the tax debt.

• Marginal note:Agent or legal representative

  (8) For the purposes of this section, an acknowledgement made by a person’s agent or legal representative has the same effect as if it were made by the person.

• Marginal note:Extension of limitation period

  (9) In computing the day on which a limitation period ends, there shall be added the number of days on which one or more of the following is the case:

  • (a) the Minister has accepted and holds security in lieu of payment of the tax debt;

  • (b) if the person was resident in Canada on the applicable date described in paragraph (5)(a) in respect of the tax debt, the person is non-resident; or

  • (c) an action that the Minister may otherwise take in respect of the tax debt is restricted or not permitted under any provision of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, of the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act or of the Farm Debt Mediation Act.

• Marginal note:Bar to claims

  (10) Despite any law of Canada or a province, Her Majesty is not liable for any claim that arises because the Minister collected a tax debt after the end of any limitation period that applied to the collection of the tax debt and before March 4, 2004.

• Marginal note:Orders after March 3, 2004 and before effect

  (11) Despite any order or judgment made after March 3, 2004 that declares a tax debt not to be payable by a person, or that orders the Minister to reimburse to a person a tax debt collected by the Minister, because a limitation period that applied to the collection of the tax debt ended before royal assent to any measure giving effect to this section, the tax debt is deemed to have become payable on March 4, 2004.