This is to advise of coming changes to the OTS Steward Remittance Report that will affect the aggregate remittance Stewards will be required to make.  These changes will take effect in conjunction with the August 2018 filing and will result in the calculation and addition of an amount related to the Harmonized Sales Tax in Ontario (currently 13%).

In 2013, OTS received a Ruling from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) that directed we cease charging HST (previously GST) on Tire Stewardship Fee (TSF) remittances from Stewards.  OTS implemented this change and since that time, OTS has not been charging Stewards HST on their TSF Remittances (note this direction from the CRA did not relate to the charging of tax on the TSF passed on at Retail).  However, OTS and the other Ontario Industry Funding Organizations (IFOs) worked together to appeal this Ruling from the CRA.

On March 21st 2018, the Tax Court of Canada released a decision in the case of Stewardship Ontario (an Ontario IFO), ruling that the fees charged by an IFO should be considered taxable.  You can view the announcement made by Stewardship Ontario here and you can view the Ruling here.

Through its analysis of the Ruling, OTS has determined that it should “normalize” our treatment of the TSF charged to Stewards and begin collecting HST when a Steward files a Remittance Report.  This has been added to the August Remittance Report, due by September 30th 2018, for tires supplied in August 2018.  Our TreadMarks system and the Remittance Report form on our website have been updated with the addition of the HST calculation.  If you use our paper submission process to file your OTS TSF Remittances via mail, please click here to access the revised TSF Remittance Form.

Should you have any questions regarding this update, please contact OTS at info@rethinktires.ca.  On behalf of the OTS Team, we look forward to working with you to continue to deliver the Ontario Used Tires Program to our existing high standards as we proceed towards wind down at the end of 2018.