December 9, 1993
R.A. DavisBusiness and General Director
Division Charities Division 957-8953
Attention: Normand Rocheleau
933407
Subsection 189(4) of the Income Tax Act (the "Act") Computation of interest with respect to a share
This is in response to your Memorandum of November 22, 1993, wherein you asked us to review the draft response that you have prepared in regards to a request from the XXXXXXXXXX for confirmation that they "must use the average of prescribed interest rates for the period from date of issue of such shares to date".
In your response you have summarized the application of subsection 189(4) of the Act as follows:
Subsection 189(4) of the Act provides that, in the case of a share or right to acquire a share which was last acquired before April 22, 1982, the lesser of;
(a) 4% plus 1% for each 5 calendar years after 1982, and
(b) the average prescribed rate for the year multiplied by 2/3.
shall be used to calculate the interest with respect to such shares.
We confirm that your response is technically correct. However, we would suggest that perhaps you insert a statement that would highlight that the interpretation made by the client is not correct, something such as:
The calculation of the average prescribed rate is done on a yearly basis using only the prescribed rates for the relevant year.
Accordingly, we do not confirm your view that you should use the average of the prescribed rates that were in effect going all the way back to the date of issue of such share as this would be in a prior year.for DirectorBusiness and General DivisionRulings DirectorateLegislative and Intergovernmental Affairs Branch