From: canadarevenue.agency@hotmail.com   
      
   Canada Revenue Agency defends collection of back taxes from O.I. Leasing   
   workers  :CRA SOTW   
      
   '[CRA is] open to working with those who are now ready to work with us,'   
   agency says   
      
   CBC News Posted: Apr 01, 2016 8:11 AM ET   
      
    The Canada Revenue Agency is defending its collection of back taxes from   
   indigenous former employees of the O.I. Group of Companies after an Ottawa man   
   owing more than $190,000 said he believed he was doing nothing wrong and that   
   he'll never be able to    
   pay the debt.   
      
      
   Nearly 4,000 former employees of the O.I. Group of Companies and Native   
   Leasing Services -- an outsourcing company based in Six Nations of the Grand   
   River, a First Nation near Brantford, Ont. -- are seeking a remission order   
   from National Revenue    
   Minister Diane Lebouthillier to suspend collections.   
      
      
   Status Indians are exempt from taxation on income earned on-reserve under   
   Section 87 of the Indian Act, and the company's objective was to offer First   
   Nations people the same incentive to work for indigenous organizations   
   off-reserve.   
      
      
   But after a series of court challenges in the early 2000s, CRA started   
   targeting individuals such as Ottawa's Miche Jette, demanding taxes on income   
   earned off-reserve even though they were working for aboriginal organizations   
   based on-reserve.   
   Wages garnisheed   
      
      
   In 1999, Jette was hired through the outsourcing company to work at the   
   now-defunct advocacy group Aboriginal Healing Foundation.   
      
      
   He is now a receptionist and front-line worker at the Centretown Community   
   Health Centre, and recently learned his income will be garnisheed until the   
   debt -- $191,471.97 and climbing -- is paid off. He makes roughly $2,000 a   
   month.   
      
      
   "It's urgent. It eats at me. I can't sleep. I'm miserable. I'm depressed. I   
   cry a lot. I'm angry. I'm sad. And I want it dealt with," he said earlier this   
   week.   
      
      
   In 1992, a Supreme Court of Canada decision "established a 'connecting   
   factors' test in order to identify if income earned or received by an   
   Indigenous Canadian is 'situated on a reserve,'" the CRA said in an email   
   statement this week.   
      
      
   "Based on the connecting factors test established by the [Supreme Court], the   
   CRA determined that the income earned by the ... employees was not situated on   
   a reserve and therefore not exempt from tax."   
      
      
   Since then, the Federal Court of Appeal and Supreme Court have affirmed the   
   CRA's tax assessments in numerous other rulings. About 1,200 employees have   
   appealed their tax assessments to the Tax Court of Canada, and only four were   
   successful, the CRA said.   
   More than 1,000 cases resolved, CRA says   
      
      
   As of this February the CRA had received 736 requests for relief from interest   
   on tax debt, "primarily based on financial hardship," the CRA said. So far 728   
   of those requests have been reviewed and the CRA "has allowed, in full or in   
   part, approximately    
   40 per cent of them."   
      
      
   More than 1,000 cases have been resolved, CRA said, adding it began   
   centralizing work done on these collections in 2006 "to ensure consistency and   
   sensitivity in addressing the various issues."   
      
      
   Legal steps have been taken with people who have not co-operated with CRA, the   
   agency said.    
      
      
   "The CRA has attempted to work with each individual in negotiating payment   
   arrangements based on the individual's ability to pay. Where co-operation from   
   the individual has not been received, legal actions have been initiated on   
   their accounts," the    
   statement reads.   
      
      
   The remission being sought by former employees is an "extraordinary measure,"   
   CRA said, but "may be considered where the collection of tax would be   
   unreasonable or unjust, or where remission would otherwise be in the public   
   interest. It is usually used    
   when all other means, such as objections or appeals, have been tried."   
      
      
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