TEI’s standing committees continue their excellent advocacy work across the globe. Copies of TEI’s submissions can be found at www.tei.org/advocacy. To get involved in TEI’s advocacy efforts, please reach out to our committee chairs or any member of TEI’s legal staff.
TEI’s Tax Reform Task Force Outlines New Guideposts for Tax Policy
Following a deliberate selection and appointment process last fall, Jason Weinstein, chair of TEI’s Tax Reform Task Force, kicked off the New Year by convening an organizational meeting with his new cross-industry leadership team. This team, which comprises two dozen senior TEI members with tax policy experience from different industries, aims to play a critical role in furthering TEI’s mission by ensuring that voices from across the industry spectrum are heard in pursuing TEI’s advocacy agenda. With the support of TEI tax counsel Watson McLeish, the task force leaders are revisiting and refreshing TEI’s Guideposts for Tax Reform, which outlined a series of principles intended to inform a comprehensive examination of the Internal Revenue Code and assist policymakers as they tackled tax reform in the 113th Congress. The goal of today’s undertaking is to promulgate a new, timely series of priority principles—TEI’s Guideposts for Tax Policy—to influence the tax policymaking processes in the 117th Congress and the Biden administration.
Comments on Certain Sales Tax Measures in Canada’s Fall 2020 Economic Statement
On January 29, TEI filed comments with the Canadian Department of Finance regarding certain e-commerce items in the department’s fall economic statement. Finance announced three new tax frameworks applicable to such commerce in the statement: 1) cross-border digital products and services; 2) goods supplied through fulfillment warehouses; and 3) platform-based short-term accommodations.
TEI’s comments focused on issues related to proposed new rules on the first two of these items. TEI’s comments addressed alignment of the new rules with Quebec’s approach, treatment of agent commissions, the implementation date of the rules, and certain practical considerations. Other Institute comments addressed reliance on third-party vendors, implementation issues related to information technology, and requests to Finance to confirm certain interpretations of the proposed new rules, among other things. TEI’s comments were submitted under the aegis of its Canadian Commodity Tax Committee, which is led by its chair, Don Mills of Canopy Growth Corporation. Benjamin R. Shreck, TEI tax counsel, coordinated the preparation of TEI’s comments.
