Dozens of collectible vehicles that are treated by a corporation as an investment but its shareholder, who has control of the vehicles at all times, uses them very little, except for their required maintenance of the vehicles. Assuming that s. 15 applies, how should the taxpayer compute the benefit? After noting that under s. 15(5) the value of the shareholder benefit was determined through the application, with the necessary modifications, of the ss. 6(1), (1.1), (2) and (7) rules, CRA stated:
[W]here the employer and the employee agree and the employee has not been assigned an automobile on a long-term or exclusive use basis, the CRA allows taxpayers to establish the amount of a reasonable standby charge using a method that takes into account the average cost of automobiles. In short, under that method, all automobiles that are made available to an employee at any time during the calendar year are grouped into purchase-cost dollar ranges not exceeding $5,000 and the average cost of each range becomes the purchase cost of the cars made available to the employee for the period. Once the average purchase price of an automobile is determined using this method, the employer calculates the usual standby charge for the use of one automobile in each price range in accordance with the provisions of subsection 6(2) and paragraph 6(1)(e).
The question of whether or not an employee has been assigned an automobile long-term or for the employee’s exclusive use is a question of fact ... .