Excise Tax Act

Marginal note:Definitions

• 313 (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 Division. (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 or remittable by a person under this Part. (dette fiscale)

• Marginal note:Debts to Her Majesty

  (1.1) A tax debt is a debt due to Her Majesty in right of Canada and is recoverable as such in the Federal Court or any other court of competent jurisdiction or in any other manner provided under this Part.

• Marginal note:Court proceedings

  (2) The Minister may not commence a proceeding in a court to collect a tax debt of a person in respect of an amount that may be assessed under this Part, unless when the proceeding is commenced the person has been or may be assessed for that amount.

• Marginal note:No actions after limitation period

  (2.1) 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

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

  • (a) begins

    • (i) if a notice of assessment, or a notice referred to in subsection 322(1), in respect of the tax debt, is sent to or served on the person after March 3, 2004, on the last day on which one of those notices is sent or served,

    • (ii) if no notice referred to in subparagraph (i) in respect of the tax debt was sent or served and the earliest day on which the Minister can commence an action to collect that tax debt is after March 3, 2004, on that earliest day, and

    • (iii) if subparagraphs (i) and (ii) do 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 (2.6), on the day that is 10 years after the day on which it begins.

• Marginal note:Limitation period restarted

  (2.3) The limitation period described in subsection (2.2) for the collection of a tax debt of a person restarts (and ends, subject to subsection (2.6), 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 (2.4);

  • (b) a remittance in respect of the tax debt is deemed under subsection 228(6) to have been made;

  • (c) a reduction or an offset in respect of the tax debt is made under subsection 228(7);

  • (d) the Minister commences an action to collect the tax debt; or

  • (e) the Minister, under paragraph 296(1)(e) or subsection 317(9), 323(4), 324(2) or 325(2), assesses another person in respect of the tax debt.

• Marginal note:Acknowledgement of tax debts

  (2.4) 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

  (2.5) 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

  (2.6) 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 postponed collection action against the person under subsection 315(3) in respect of the tax debt;

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

  • (c) if the person was resident in Canada on the applicable date described in paragraph (2.2)(a) in respect of the tax debt, the person is non-resident; or

  • (d) 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

  (2.7) Despite any law of Canada or a province, Her Majesty in right of Canada 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

  (2.8) Despite any order or judgment made after March 3, 2004 that declares a tax debt not to be payable or remittable 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 or remittable on March 4, 2004.

• Marginal note:Interest on judgments

  (3) If a judgment is obtained for any tax, net tax, penalty, interest or other amount payable or remittable under this Part, including a certificate registered under section 316, the provisions of this Part by which interest is payable for failure to pay or remit the amount apply, with such modifications as the circumstances require, to failure to pay the judgment debt, and the interest is recoverable in like manner as the judgment debt.

• Marginal note:Court costs

  (4) If an amount is payable by a person to Her Majesty in right of Canada because of an order, judgment or award of a court in respect of the costs of litigation relating to a matter to which this Part applies, subsections 314(1) and (3) and sections 316 to 322 apply to the amount as if the amount were a debt owing by the person to Her Majesty on account of tax payable by the person under this Part.