Excise Act, 2001

Marginal note:Definitions

• 284 (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:Debts to Her Majesty

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

• 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 Act, 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, or a notice referred to in subsection 254(1) or 294(1) in respect of the tax debt, is sent to or served on the person, after March 3, 2004, on the day that is 90 days after the day on which the last 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) in any other case, 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 subsection 188(1), 289(7), 295(4), 296(2) or 297(3), 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 286(2) to (7), take any of the actions described in subsection 286(1) 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:Interest on judgments

  (3) If a judgment is obtained for any duty, interest or other amount payable under this Act, including a certificate registered under section 288, the provisions of this Act by which interest is payable for failure to pay an amount apply, with any modifications that the circumstances require, to the failure to pay the judgment debt, and the interest is recoverable in like manner as the judgment debt.

• Marginal note:Litigation costs

  (4) If an amount is payable by a person to Her Majesty because of an order, judgment or award of a court in respect of the costs of litigation relating to a matter to which this Act applies, sections 285 and 288 to 294 apply to the amount as if the amount were owing by the person on account of duty payable by the person under this Act.