The ARQ denied input tax credits claimed by Axamit for its 2015 year regarding GST charged by its landlord, because Axamit had not provided the ARQ with any document issued by the landlord as the ARQ considered to be required by the definition in the Input Tax Credit Information (GST/HST) Regulations of “supporting documentation.” However, Gagnon J accepted the testimony of Axamit’s president that it had provided the landlord’s GST registration number to its external accountants in 2013, i.e., before they prepared its 2015 return and claimed the ITC.
In allowing Axamit’s appeal, he followed the finding in CFI Funding (quoted at para. 45) that s. 169(4) “simply provides that the registrant must have obtained the prescribed information in a form that will allow the ITCs to be determined” and that “[h]ow that information is obtained does not matter,” and further stated (at para. 50, TaxInterpretations translation) that “it does not appear appropriate that the scope of general wording of the preamble to the definition of supporting documentation in the Regulations be limited to the enumeration following the preamble.”