Excise Tax Act

Marginal note:Definitions

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

  action

  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

  représentant légal

  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

  dette fiscale

  tax debt means any amount payable by a person under this Act other than Part IX. (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) Subject to subsection (3), 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 in respect of the tax debt is mailed to or served on the person after March 3, 2004, on the day that is 90 days after the day on which the notice is mailed or served,

    • (ii) if no notice referred to in subparagraph (i) in respect of the tax debt was mailed 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) the Minister commences an action to collect the tax debt; or

  • (c) the Minister, under section 81.1, 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 may not, because of any of subsections 86(5) to (8), take any of the actions described in subsection 86(4) 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 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.

• Marginal note:Exception where misrepresentation or fraud

  (3) Proceedings for the recovery of any tax, penalty, interest or other sum payable under this Act may be commenced in a court at any time if payment thereof was avoided by reason of a misrepresentation attributable to neglect, carelessness or wilful default or by reason of fraud.

• Marginal note:Recovery of penalties and fines for offence from corporation

  (4) Where a penalty or fine is imposed on a corporation pursuant to a conviction for an offence under this Act and the conviction or a certified copy thereof is produced to the Federal Court, the conviction shall be registered in the Court and, when registered, has the same force and effect, and all proceedings may be taken thereon, as if the conviction were a judgment obtained in the Court for a debt of the amount of the penalty or fine and costs, if any, specified in the conviction.

• Marginal note:Penalties and interest on judgments

  (5) Where a judgment is obtained for any tax, penalty, interest or other sum payable under this Act, including a certificate registered under section 83, the provisions of this Act by virtue of which a penalty or interest is payable for failure to pay or remit the sum apply, with such modifications as the circumstances require, to failure to pay the judgment debt, and the penalty and interest are recoverable in the same manner as the judgment debt.