October 31st, 2023
Organization presentation and challenges
Consultaxe was mandated by a municipality to assist in validating the processing of consumption taxes in relation to various proposed changes to its by-law on fees. Some decision makers wanted to determine the impact of modifying the cost of various municipal activities, particularly in the area of recreation, by offering certain facilities’ services either free of charge or at a greatly reduced price, when they had been subject to a charge beforehand.
Our involvement
Consultaxe’s tax specialists reviewed all the municipality’s revenues. This exercise, carried out in collaboration with a number of the municipality’s departments, including recreation, identified a number of non-compliant GST and QST treatments. In addition, our team also validated that the various downward pricing changes, if not accompanied by other measures, would have the effect of reducing the percentage of use of certain buildings for commercial activities, resulting in a particularly large sum to be remitted if these changes came into effect.
Result
Several recommendations were submitted to the municipality on the use and pricing of its facilities, which considerably reduced the amount of taxes to be remitted to the tax authorities, while still achieving the municipality’s initial objective. This enabled decision makers to move ahead with pricing changes in full awareness of all their impacts, not just the drop in revenue.
