If you think Indigenous people don’t pay tax, think again

Article content material

There’s a typical false impression that Indigenous individuals in Canada merely don’t pay tax, however that’s usually not true since to be able to be exempt from tax, the earnings earned have to be located on a reserve.

A current case, determined earlier this month, handled the exemption and the way it’s utilized. The case concerned an worker who’s a Haudenosaunee Iroquois Confederacy Treaty Indian from the Six Nations of Grand River in Ontario who lives on the reserve and works as a clerk at a hospital simply exterior the reserve. She took the place that the earnings she earned from working on the hospital was exempt from tax.

Article content material

The worker is a “Standing Indian” throughout the that means of the Indian Act. Beneath the act, the private property of an Indigenous individual located on a reserve is exempt from tax. Prior jurisprudence has concluded that the employment earnings of such an individual is private property, and so if the taxpayer’s employment earnings from her work on the hospital was located “on a reserve,” it will be exempt from tax.

The aim of the exemption for earnings earned on a reserve, as articulated by the Supreme Court docket, is to “protect the entitlement of Indians to their reserve lands and to make sure that the usage of their property on their reserve lands (is) not eroded by the flexibility of governments to tax, or collectors to grab.” Its goal is “to not confer a common financial profit.”

Within the current case, the important thing query was whether or not the worker’s earnings could possibly be thought of to be earned on a reserve and, if that’s the case, be exempt from tax. A 1991 Supreme Court docket resolution held that whether or not earnings is located “on a reserve” is set primarily based on whether or not there are adequate connecting elements to the reserve.

Article content material

Article content material

The court docket set out a two-step check: establish the possibly related connecting elements that join the earnings to the reserve, after which analyze these elements to find out how a lot weight must be given to every of them.

Prior jurisprudence has established 5 connecting elements which are doubtlessly related within the context of figuring out whether or not employment earnings could be stated to have been earned on a reserve: the residence of the employer, the residence of the worker, the placement the place the worker is paid, the placement the place the work is carried out and the character of the companies carried out.

The decide famous that because the central administration and management of the hospital didn’t happen on the Six Nations reserve, this argues for taxation. Alternatively, the worker lives on the reserve, a couple of 10-minute drive from the hospital, which argues for exemption from taxation. The worker was additionally paid by direct deposit to her checking account on the reserve, which additionally argues for exemption from taxation.

However issues received a bit extra sophisticated when evaluating the placement of the work and the character of the companies carried out.

Article content material

The worker carried out the overwhelming majority of her work on the hospital, which isn’t on the reserve, however on non-public land that was donated to the hospital in 1961. The worker took the place that the hospital land belongs to the Six Nations, having been given to them in 1784 underneath the Haldimand Proclamation in recognition of their service to the Crown throughout the American Revolution. She stated the proclamation gave the Six Nations all of the land inside six miles of the Grand River, which is an enormous swath of land described as being “roughly 9,000,000 acres, solely 5 per cent of which is roofed by the Six Nations reserve.”

The taxpayer produced a Google Earth map purporting to indicate that the hospital was inside six miles of the reserve, however, primarily based on the distances on the map and the map’s scale, it appeared the hospital might have been situated about 8.4 miles from the reserve. Nonetheless, the decide felt this was irrelevant since he wasn’t being requested to resolve whether or not the hospital’s land rightfully belongs to the Six Nations, however whether or not the hospital itself is situated on the reserve.

Article content material

The time period “reserve” is outlined within the Indian Act as a “tract of land, the authorized title to which is vested in His Majesty, that has been set aside by His Majesty for the use and good thing about a band.” Whereas the decide was prepared, for the aim of the enchantment, to simply accept that the hospital is situated on disputed land, authorized title to the hospital land isn’t vested in “His Majesty” and concluded it’s nonetheless not situated on the Six Nations reserve, so the location-of-work issue argues for taxation.

The ultimate issue to be weighed was the character of the companies carried out. The worker’s position was to course of medical doctors’ orders, reply telephones and name bells, do scheduling, order provides, relieve different staff on switchboard duties and transfer beds when required.

The hospital serves the encompassing group, together with individuals who reside on the reserve and is one among 5 hospitals within the space. Folks residing on the reserve will usually go to whichever hospital is closest to the place they reside. There was no proof to counsel that the majority of the hospital’s sufferers got here from the reserve. Equally, solely three of the hospital’s roughly 100 staff lived on the reserve.

Article content material

The worker was unable to level to something concerning the nature of the companies she carried out or the operations of the hospital that might in any method join her companies to the reserve. She felt that appreciable weight needs to be given to the truth that the hospital is on disputed land, however the decide famous that this reality “may need been related if the character of (her) work had been carefully tied to the reserve.”

Ultimately, the decide gave reasonable weight to the worker’s residence and that of her employer, little weight to the place of cost and vital weight to the placement and nature of her work. Primarily based on this, he discovered that the worker’s employment earnings was taxable.

Jamie Golombek, FCPA, FCA, CFP, CLU, TEP, is the managing director, Tax & Property Planning with CIBC Non-public Wealth in Toronto. Jamie.Golombek@cibc.com.

In the event you preferred this story, join extra within the FP Investor publication.

Bookmark our web site and help our journalism: Don’t miss the enterprise information it’s essential know — add financialpost.com to your bookmarks and join our newsletters here.

Article content material