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| Volume 10, Number 11 | February 7, 2003 |
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Parking tax refund cheques being issuedAn arrangement worked out between the U of S and the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency (CCRA) means the University's 1999, 2000 and 2001 parking-stall holders will receive a tax refund from the federal government this month. U of S Taxation Manager Tracey McHardy says each faculty and staff member who was assessed a taxable benefit for his or her parking stall by the CCRA will get a tax reassessment notice this month from the tax agency. There will be a separate reassessment notice for each year in which the employee had a parking stall. McHardy says calculation of the many reassessments depends on a variety of factors, including how many months the faculty or staff member held a parking stall and the employee's tax bracket. She says most people who were assessed taxable benefits for their parking stalls for the full three years stand to receive refunds of anywhere between $80 and $140. The refunds are being distributed either as a single cheque to the employee or as a direct deposit into their bank account. McHardy says the affected employees should have received their notice of reassessment and refund by Feb. 20. If they haven't, she says they should phone Janice Affleck of the CCRA, at 975-5553. She notes employees will have to declare the interest portion of the refund payment as income on their 2003 tax return. McHardy says this reassessment and refund process doesn't apply to approximately 150 U of S employees for the years in which they filed an official notice of objection to the assessment of the taxable benefit. She says most of those people's cases have already been handled. If any of these cases are outstanding, the employees involved may phone Yvonne Provost of CCRA, at 975-4392. The federal tax agency's imposition of a taxable benefit on U of S parking stall holders was overturned in the Tax Court of Canada last Sept. 17 when five professors won their case challenging the tax. Judge David Beaubier ruled it wasn't reasonable to compare the value of gravel-surfaced U of S parking with competitive or high-priced paved parking in areas like downtown and Innovation Place. Baubier also said the price charged for rental of U of S parking stalls was reasonably set by negotiation between the University and the Faculty Association and represented "the fair market value of those stalls". For these reasons, Beaubier said there was no taxable benefit to be assessed. CCRA did not appeal the judgment by the mid-October deadline and University officials have been discussing procedures for repayment of the employees' 1999-2001 taxes with CCRA since late October. No federal tax adjustment will be needed for 2002 because from October to December the University adjusted payrolls to offset the taxes assessed for the January to September 2002 period. McHardy says the University is still talking with the CCRA to work out details of repayment of the $240,000 the U of S paid on behalf of its employees for 1997 and 1998.
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