Tax exemption for Native Status Card Holders

[geogolem]

I am asking this question for my mother, as it doesn't really apply to me.

My mother is a Public Mobile customer who is set-up on autopay. She should be receiving her Native Status Card in the mail soon -- it was a long process to apply and get approved. Once she receives this card she will be exempt from the PST (Provincial) portion of the HST on telecommunications services. For reference refer to this Bell website: http://support.bell.ca/Billing-and-Accounts/Billing/How_to_apply_for_Indian_status

Once she receives her card; how should she go about marking her Public Mobile account PST exempt?

[geogolem]

Its not actually the CRA that you have to submit the refund request to, but in fact The Ministry of Finance.. at least for Ontario -- I'm not sure about other provinces... 

All the instructions for Ontario can be found here: https://www.ontario.ca/document/harmonized-sales-tax-hst/ontario-first-nations-harmonized-sales-tax-...

Several years ago, we requested the receipts and submitted them for refund, but nowadays I usually try and buy vouchers at stores like Shoppers Drug Mart, where they can exempt the exempt portion of taxes at the point of sale... 

Although I understand Public Mobile is not equipped to handle this, in all honesty - they should really do something to make it possible - I doubt it would be too difficult for them. Legally they are not obligated to do anything except provide the proper documentation; however all business's etc. are encouaraged to offer the exemption at the point of sale...

When you submit to the MInistry of Finance for refund... It sometimes takes 8 months (even though the regular turnaround time is supposed to be 8 weeks) to a year to get a response because they are really backed up.

[computergeek541]

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@Albertaink wrote:

Please message me as well with information as I also carry a status card. I am in Alberta. Thank you. 

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You need to pay for the sale tax for now.  Afterwards, ask Pubilc Mobile for receipts by opening a ticket through https://widget.telus.tiia.ai/publicmobile/publicmobile.html .  At your convenience/at certain time intervals (maybe once per year), you'll then need to contact CRA for a refund on the sales tax.

[dust2dust]

@Albertaink- Mary_M is no longer doing this. Seems you have to ask for an invoice and then submit that to the taxing authorities to get a refund of taxes paid.

[hTideGnow]

HI @Albertaink   

I don't think PM can exempt the tax here.  It is a prepaid service and they are not setup to do it that way

[Albertaink]

Please message me as well with information as I also carry a status card. I am in Alberta. Thank you. 

[lass]

I was wondering to about the native tax exempt as a new customer and also set up to auto pay

[geogolem]

@Neives: No problem - just glad we could clarify it. We generally don't receive those e-mails; however, my mom did request invoices for all previous Public Mobile payments on her account and she did receive via e-mail invoices that clearly showed the transactions details including HST paid etc.

She has submitted these along with several other receipts. They say it could take 8 weeks to process so hopefully sometime in the next 3 months we will receive those receipts back along with some indication of refund -- my mom is not sure if they will direct deposit it or send her a cheque. Its the first time she has done this - so we shall see.

Public Mobile told my mom she can request these invoices at any time so my mom figures she will just request invoices every 6 months or every year or something and submit them.

It would be a good idea to have the option to automatically have public mobile send an invoice like this monthly similar to what other carriers like Koodo do. Then they would just accumulate in her e-mail inbox and when the time comes she could just print them off. Also she wouldnt have to request them periodically.

[Neives]

Ah, I completely forgot about that option to get the receipts mailed back to you. That's smart, and probably would be sent back at the same time you would find out if she gets her tax exempt refund (which she should).
Again, you're most probably right that the payment history or anything you can access under Self-Serve is insufficient for these purposes. 
As for whether or not I get monthly invoices, I'm fairly new here and am on a 90-day plan. So I've only had to pay the once thus far and got such a statement via email welcoming me to Public Mobile, giving the details about the account and plan and the amount it would cost, a subtotal, taxes, and actual total. This is the only such email that could serve as an invoice I've received and as far as I know I didn't do anything special to receive it other than signing up and just assumed I'd receive something similar come the next payment period (as I'm accustomed to having happen with my previous carrier and any web service I've used to purchase things).
So, now that you mention it, I do not believe I have such a setting on my account, nor will I probably receive such emails in the future, unless, like you, I request them specifically. 
Indeed, that would be useful, and should perhaps be a standard featured that should be added. Perhaps an idea to add to the Public Lab?

Thank you for your insight and sorry for any improper information I gave

[geogolem]

Interestingly enough - my mom did just receive the invoices we requested (invoices for past payments) via email. The invoices do clearly show the HST charged etc.

I guess the request we made was simply for them to send them. I thought they would send them by mail but e-mail is fine too and faster. This was just invoices for past payments. We were told we would have to manually request invoices. Have you got your account setup so that somehow you receive an invoice everytime the card is charged? that would be useful.

[geogolem]

@NeivesWe plan to send "original receipts" and on the form I believe there is a place to indicate that you want these receipts to be returned to you so once we receive these receipts back hopefully it won't be too long after that that a refund is provided. She is going to be sending several receipts for other things as well -> not just Public Mobile.

@Neives: Im curious to know about invoices you are receiving from Public Mobile via e-mail. I do not believe I or my mother receive such invoices for our accounts. My mother did request past invoices to be sent by mail, but we were not aware that an option exists for having the invoices e-mailed to you monthly. Can you verify that you do in fact receive such invoices via e-mail for public mobile. Did you have to do anything to request these invoices?

We are aware of the "payment history" in self serve but I doubt this would be sufficient because it does not indicate or even show the tax collected. i.e. it just shows a "top up" of say 25$ even though the credit card itself is charged 28.25...

Hopefully the invoices we requested to be sent by mail will show the tax collected. Please let me know if you are in fact receiving e-mail invoices monthly that show this.

[Neives]

The invoices should most certaintly be enough, and she should indeed receive her refund. Don't forget she must also send in photocopied proof of her Status (front and back of the card she should've received) along with the invoices and the forms. But as is also noted in the link I provided above, it can take quite some time before you see such a refund appear in her bank account (if she's signed up with direct deposit with the government(s)). A period of weeks at least and depending on the flow of other claimants.

As for getting the invoices in paper format via mail, I believe simply prinitng out the emails you get from Public Mobile whenever there is a charge made to your credit card should be sufficient enough in serving as such an invoice. However, I've yet to try it but, just a suggestion in the future to quicken the process.

Hope it works out for you's.

P.S. I don't think they (Ministry of Finance) send a formal response. I've only done something similar once before with Customs when receiving a package, and after a lenghty period of time I got a cheque stub in the mail showing the amount that was directly deposited on such-and-such a date. If I hadn't been eligible, I don't even know if they'd bother to send anything in way of response at all. Unfortunately, that's just sometimes the way things are - but again, I can't say with absolute certainty

[geogolem]

Thanks @Neives . My mother did in fact come to the same conclusion as you. The only reason we didn't post back here yet - is because she hasn't receives the invoices requested from Public Mobile via mail yet. As soon as she received the invoices she is going to submit them along with the appropriate form to the Ministry of Finance in the hopes of receiving a refund. We were waiting to post back here because we want to make sure that the invoices Public Mobile sends out have the necessary and appropriate information - i.e. amount of tax collected etc. I'll post back here if this is in fact the case when we receive them in the mail and also after receiving a response (refund or not) from the Ministry of Finance. Hopefully the invoices provided are sufficient and the Ministry of Finance accepts them without issue (if they have the appropriate information I see no reason why they would not)

[Neives]

So, after some working with our wonderful moderatory @Mary_M, there does not appear to be a way to take off the applicable tax via the web service, though as other helpful Community members have stated, using the voucher method would enable you to get tax exempted at the point of purchase.

However, this does not mean that there is no hope for those using only your credit card via the AutoPay web service.

Rather, in order to claim those taxes (for residents in the province of Ontario at least) you must fill out and mail in a completed form (one page long) along with proof of Status and original receipts/invoices (which is all we need provided from PM) saught after in the claim to the Ontario Ministry of Finance. This form and tons of other useful information relating to this subject can be found here at; http://www.fin.gov.on.ca/en/forms/general/0248.html. 

Also interesting to note: it states that it is recommended that you send only one form with multiple claims at once, rather than many smaller claims, where you have up to 4 years from the date of receipt to file for the tax exemption.

Hope this helps with anyone having similar questions, and again, a big thank you to all of you who have first asked these and other questions and to anyone who has helped in any way to provide us with answers.

Have yourselves a great day!

[Rockdaddy22]

Awesome work Mary 🙂
Remember, you can still use autopay with vouchers, you just have to have a credit card set up in your account.

[Mary_M]

Yes of course @geogolem

[geogolem]

@Mary_M: could you please also private message the user @sharerb with the details.

[Mary_M]

Good morning @Neives

i understand that you're concerned regarding the tax exemption.

I will look into this for you and acquire the necessary information, and I'll be sending you a private message shortly.

Thank you !

Mary

[Neives]

Okay, sounds like a deal! Thanks for your reply! Still no responses from the mods @Mary_M , @Shazia_K ? Well, nothing to do but wait, I guess. Even with taxes, this service is far better for the value payed than what I was getting on my previous carrier

[geogolem]

Hi @Neives,

I havent heard or seen anything new regarding this; however, my mother's status card finally came in the mail yesterday. She had some difficulty activating it and is waiting for a call back, but as soon as she gets the card "activated" we will investigate this more. We'll be pretty much in the same boat as you describe in your message. Please post here if you find out any more information and I will do the same.

[Neives]

Hi, I'm still new to Public Mobile and also a Status card holder in the province of Ontario, as per OP's mother. Although the workaround idea of the voucher is great and no doubt effective, I would prefer to use the convenience of the Auto Pay option. Has there been a solution for this particular issue (as in, getting the appropriate tax exempt while using Auto Pay)?

[kav2001c]

@socialcocoon noooo and you will get lots of hate for implying that! They have special status in our country.

[makkahn28]

Actually, not necessarily. There are American Indians as well, too bad that the Mexican Natives are not part of it, they should, to be fair, and should be considered part of the law. MHO

[socialcocoon]

Natives are Canadian...

[kav2001c]

@JaK great idea for temporary solution! 

[kav2001c]

@makkahn28 nothing to do with fair, it is a legal requirement.

Native persons are not Canadian and as such have special treaties in place for things like taxes

[JaK]

The voucher method almost certainly will work, it was mentioned in another post as how they did it. My understanding is that most retail facilities have the ability to adjust the tax on presentation of a Native Status card, but it might require some paperwork. If she is on or close to a reserve, then buying vouchers there should be easy.

[makkahn28]

If PM has no system in place yet, they should, as it is a matter of fairness

[srlawren]

Hi @geogolem.  This is a great question I haven't encountered previously, and as I do not know the answer, I'm going to flag our community moderators @Shazia_K and @Mary_M in hopes that one of them can provide this information to you.

I suspect @JaK's suggested workaround would work also, provided the system that sells the vouchers is set up to be able to accept that information.  I have no actual experience with how that works, so can't say positivley, but it is worth trying if Shazia and Mary don't have a better method.

[JaK]

Good question @geogolem!

PM has the ability to charge different tax based on what justidiction you are in, so you would think that they should be also be able adjust tax based on Native Status, but almost certain it will require the help of a PM staffer (eg one of the moderators) to set up.

In the meantime, she should be able to buy vouchers, present her Native Status Card and have the tax removed at time of purchase.