The appellant, which was the manager (and also trustee) for various mutual fund trusts, charged reduced management fees to the trusts to reflect the reduced management fees agreed with the larger investors (with a corresponding reduction in the GST collected). However, the Funds made special "Management Fee Distributions" to the large investors equal to the difference between the ‘gross" management fees they otherwise would have borne and the reduced management fee amounts. Before finding that the trust obligations to pay the Management Fee Distributions to the large investors was not part of the consideration that the Funds provided in exchange for the appellant's management services, Campbell J stated (at para. 35):
Pursuant to Commission Scolaire des Chênes and the common law definition of consideration, all that would be required for the Management Fee Distributions to constitute consideration for the taxable supply of management services would be a contractual obligation.
See detailed summary under ETA – s. 153(1).