Section 340 — Excise Tax Act: Prepayment of rent and royalties

Subject to subsection (3), where a taxable supply of property is made in Canada to a person by way of lease, licence or similar arrangement, any payment of consideration for the supply that became due after August 1990 and before 1991, or that was paid after August 1990 and before 1991 without becoming due, to the extent that the payment is rent, royalty or a similar payment attributable to a period after 1990, shall be deemed to have become due on January 1, 1991 and not to have been paid before 1991 and, where the supplier is a registrant, tax is payable in respect of the amount of consideration so deemed to have become due. Subject to subsection (3), where a taxable supply of property by way of lease, licence or similar arrangement is made in Canada to a person other than a consumer by a supplier in the ordinary course of a business, to the extent that any consideration for the supply that became due after August 1989 and before September 1990 or was paid after August 1989 and before September 1990 without becoming due is rent, royalty or a similar payment that is attributable to a period after 1990, tax is payable in respect of that consideration and the person shall, on or before April 1, 1991, file with the Minister in prescribed manner a return in prescribed form containing prescribed information and remit the tax in respect of that consideration to the Receiver General. No tax is payable in respect of any consideration paid before 1994 under an agreement in writing entered into before 1991 for the supply by way of lease of property that is an automobile, or equipment for use by a medical practitioner or a practitioner (within the meanings assigned by section 1 of Part II of Schedule V) in supplying services in the course of practising the profession of the medical practitioner or practitioner, as the case may be, and the possession of which is transferred to the recipient of the supply before 1991, to the extent that that consideration is rent or other payment under the agreement that is attributable to a period before 1994 or to the extent that that consideration is attributable to the acquisition of the property. Where a taxable supply of property is made to a person by way of lease, licence or similar arrangement, no tax is payable in respect of the consideration for the supply that became due before May 1991, or that was paid before May 1991 without becoming due, to the extent that the consideration is rent, royalty or a similar payment attributable to a period before 1991. Subsections (1), (2) and (4) do not apply in respect of payments of consideration for the use of, or the right to use, intangible personal property where the amount of the payment is not dependent on the amount of the use of or production from, or the profit from the use of or production from, the property. Where under an agreement in writing entered into before August 8, 1989 a supply by way of lease of tangible personal property that is capital property of the supplier, or a supply by way of sub-lease of tangible personal property that is capital property of the person who supplied the property by way of lease to the sub-lessor, is made to a person, no tax is payable in respect of any consideration for any supply of the property under the agreement. Where an agreement in writing is renewed after August 7, 1989 or is varied or altered after August 7, 1989 to vary or alter the term of the agreement or the property affected by the agreement, the agreement shall be deemed, for the purposes of subsection (6), to have been entered into after August 7, 1989.