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GST — waiver of interest and penalty

My client was a manufacturer that was in severe financial difficulty in 1991-92, and failed to remit all the GST it had collected. At one point it owed some $200,000 including interest and penalties. As times got better, it gradually reduced the balance owing, but the Revenue Canada Collections officer wanted the payments to speed up.

In 1994, the Collections officer promised my client that, if it paid the balance of GST which was then about $85,000, he would arrange for the remaining interest and penalty to be waived. My client agreed and provided post-dated cheques for the $85,000.

After this balance was paid off, the file was referred to the Revenue Canada Fairness Committee, which ruled that my client did not meet the guidelines for waiver of interest and penalty, and upheld these amounts, which were now about $50,000.

At this point the client came to me. I wrote a strong letter to the Director of the local Tax Services Office, backed up by documentation and affidavits to support what had happened. I indicated that Revenue Canada should not go back on the arrangement it had promised, even if the Collections officer did not have authority to promise a waiver (which he did not).

The Director agreed with me, and the interest and penalty were cancelled.

Problem vanished!

(1996)