| July 25, 1990 | |
| MISSISSAUGA DISTRICT OFFICE | Business and General |
| G.R. Mohr | Division |
| Director-Taxation | J.D. Jones |
| 957-2104 | |
| 901089 | |
| EACC9393 |
SUBJECT: Taxable Benefit - Parking
This is in reply to your memorandum of June 1, 1990, wherein you requested our opinion on the determination of whether or not a taxable benefit arises from local parking administration rules 24(1)
24(1)
Based upon the above, you have requested our opinion on whether the individuals who have been assigned one of the 25 spots identified in the lease would be required to report a taxable benefit for income tax purposes. You have also requested our opinion on whether a taxable benefit is exigible to any of the other employees who have one of the other 240 spaces available. With respect to the 240 spaces available, you have also requested our opinion on whether a taxable benefit would be exigible to the affected employees if the surrounding market pressures dictated a price increase for those spaces but the landlord's rates remained below those prevailing rates.
In general terms, the Department's position with respect to parking benefits is that unless there is an identifiable cost to the employer, there is no taxable benefit to the employee. Concerning the 25 parking spaces identified in the lease, it is our view that there is no identifiable cost to the employer for these spaces, there is no taxable benefit to the affected employees.
With respect to the other 240 spaces, provided the employees are paying fair market value to the landlord for these spaces, there is no taxable benefit exigible to the employees. In the situation where the surrounding market pressures dictate a price increase but the landlord does not increase the cost to the employees to the market value, there may be a taxable benefit to the employees equal to the excess of the fair market value of those spaces minus the amount paid by the employees depending on whether the landlord's decision not to increase the costs to the renters up to fair market value relates in any way to their status 24(1).
B.W. DathDirectorBusiness and General DivisionSpecialty Rulings DirectorateLegislative and Intergovernmental Affairs Branch