A corporation with a June 30 taxation year end makes monthly payments of interest on a loan from its non-resident parent, and remits withholding tax to CRA each month. In its annual return it recognizes that by virtue of s. 18(4) the interest is non-deductible and is deemed to be a dividend – and with the Treaty-reduced rate of withholding being less that the rate at which Part XIII tax actually was withheld. The NR-7 form permits the recovery of excess withholding, but only on the basis of a calendar year filing. What procedure should be followed in order to recover the excess withholding tax?
Before indicating that the excess withholding could only be recovered under s. 227(6) through filings made on a calendar year basis, CRA noted that s. 214(16)(b) allowed “for flexibility and certainty with respect to the corporation’s withholding and payment obligations in respect of the amounts of such deemed dividends during a taxation year,” therefore apparently implying that the withholding tax rate reduction under s. 214(16)(b) could be anticipated at the time of making the interest payments.