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C-8.3 - Act respecting international financial centres

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2021-12-10 Show full text at this date

4. In this Act, unless the context indicates otherwise,

“administration” in relation to the shares of a qualified investment fund means the administration of the shareholders’ accounts;

“adviser” means, except for the purposes of the definition of “foreign financial entity”, an adviser within the meaning of section 3 of the Derivatives Act (chapter I-14.01) or section 5 of the Securities Act (chapter V-1.1), authorized to act in that capacity under that Act;

“agreed proportion” has the meaning assigned by section 1.8 of the Taxation Act (chapter I-3);

“back office activities” means the behind-the-scenes administrative tasks associated with front-line financial activities;

“business” means a business within the meaning of section 1 of the Taxation Act or part of such a business;

“Canadian corporation” has the meaning assigned by section 1 of the Taxation Act;

“Canadian debt security” means any of the following securities:

(1) a bond or debenture, other than a convertible bond or debenture, issued by a Canadian corporation;

(2) a bond or Treasury bond issued by the Government of Canada or the government of a province, including a bond or Treasury bond issued by any of their respective state-owned corporations; or

(3) a coupon detached from a security described in paragraph 1 or 2;

“cash management” includes the management and planning of cash flow operations, in particular the management of market, foreign exchange and interest rate risks and the management of financing operations;

“dealer” means, except for the purposes of the definition of “foreign financial entity”, a dealer within the meaning of section 3 of the Derivatives Act or section 5 of the Securities Act, authorized to act in that capacity under that Act;

“designated financial corporation”, at a particular time, means a corporation or partnership that is operating an international financial centre as an adviser at that time and in respect of which

(1) each ultimate beneficiary in respect of the corporation or partnership, at any given time in the taxation year or fiscal period of the corporation or partnership that includes the particular time, is dealing at arm’s length with the corporation or partnership at that given time; or

(2) the following conditions are satisfied:

(a) no ultimate beneficiary in respect of the corporation or partnership, at any given time in the taxation year or fiscal period of the corporation or partnership that includes the particular time, is an individual who is an employee of the corporation or partnership in respect of whom a certificate referred to in section 19, as it read before being repealed, section 20 or any of sections 2.10 and 3.5 of Schedule E to the Act respecting the sectoral parameters of certain fiscal measures (chapter P-5.1) has been issued, for a period including that given time, to the corporation or partnership in relation to the international financial centre or in respect of whom it may reasonably be expected that such a certificate will be issued for such a period;

(b) in the case of the corporation, no ultimate beneficiary in respect of the corporation, at any given time in the taxation year of the corporation that includes the particular time, and no group of persons referred to in the definition of “ultimate beneficiary” and of which such an ultimate beneficiary is a member at that given time, has, directly or indirectly, in any manner whatsoever, an interest as a specified shareholder of the corporation at that given time,

(c) in the case of the partnership, no ultimate beneficiary in respect of the partnership, at any given time in the fiscal period of the partnership that includes the particular time, and no group of persons referred to in the definition of “ultimate beneficiary” and of which such an ultimate beneficiary is a member at that given time, has, directly or indirectly, in any manner whatsoever, an interest as a member of the partnership having, alone or with any other member of the partnership with whom the member is not dealing at arm’s length, an interest of at least 10% in the income or loss of the partnership for that fiscal period, and

(d) each ultimate beneficiary in respect of the corporation or partnership, at any given time in the taxation year or fiscal period of the corporation or partnership that includes the particular time, is, at that given time, dealing at arm’s length with an individual described in subparagraph a in relation to that given time or with a person having an interest as a specified shareholder, that is referred to in subparagraph b, or with a person, or each of the members of a group of members of the partnership, having an interest as a member of the partnership, that is referred to in subparagraph c, as the case may be;

“distribution” of the shares of a qualified investment fund means the operations connected with the sale of the shares;

“employee” has the meaning assigned by section 1 of the Taxation Act;

“excluded corporation” means

(1) a corporation that is exempt from tax for a taxation year under Book VIII of Part I of the Taxation Act; or

(2) a corporation that would be exempt from tax for a taxation year under section 985 of the Taxation Act but for section 192 of that Act;

“financial corporation” means

(1) a bank within the meaning of section 1 of the Taxation Act;

(2) a savings and credit union within the meaning of section 797 of the Taxation Act;

(3) a trust company authorized under the legislation of Canada or of a province to provide trustee services;

(4) a corporation that is a registered securities dealer within the meaning of section 1 of the Taxation Act;

(5) an insurance corporation, within the meaning of the first paragraph of section 1166 of the Taxation Act, that is subject to tax under Part VI of that Act or that would be subject to such tax if it carried on a business in Québec;

(6) any other financial or insurance institution similar to an entity described in any of paragraphs 1 to 5; or

(7) a corporation all the issued capital stock of which, except directors’ qualifying shares, belongs to one or more entities referred to in any of paragraphs 1 to 6;

“financial derivative” means a contract, instrument or security, the market price, value or payment obligations of which is derived from an underlying interest or from the relationship between certain underlying interests;

“financial packaging services” means providing advice or other technical assistance for project financing, including the services relating to strategic planning, term financing through private placement, the financial aspect of privatization of operations, the submission of financial information to lenders, the negotiation of short-term credit contracts, the implementation of an international cash management organization and the financial aspect of business acquisitions and mergers;

“fiscal period” has the meaning assigned by Part I of the Taxation Act;

“foreign entity” means the government of a foreign country or of a political subdivision of a foreign country or a corporation other than a Canadian corporation;

“foreign exposure” means, in relation to a fund, portfolio or financial product, the result of either or, as the case may be, of the total, of the following aggregates:

(a) the aggregate of one or more physical securities that are qualified securities and that are not combined with a financial derivative position; and

(b) the aggregate of one or more financial derivative positions, combined or not with physical securities, the underlying interest of which, resulting from the net position, is foreign;

“foreign financial derivative” means a financial derivative the underlying interest of which is foreign;

“foreign financial entity” means a person or a partnership, or a group of persons or partnerships, that carries on a business all or substantially all of whose activities are carried out outside Canada and that is any of the following entities, or is composed of such entities:

(1) a bank;

(2) a savings and credit union;

(3) a trust company;

(4) a securities dealer;

(5) an insurance corporation;

(6) any other financial or insurance institution similar to an entity referred to in any of paragraphs 1 to 5;

(7) a securities adviser or a securities portfolio manager;

(8) a damage or personal insurance broker; or

(9) a corporation all the issued capital stock of which, except directors’ qualifying shares, belongs to one or more entities referred to in any of paragraphs 1 to 8;

“individual” has the meaning assigned by Part I of the Taxation Act;

“international financial transaction” includes an international insurance activity;

“management” of a qualified investment fund means the management of a part or all of the assets of the investment fund;

“organization” of a qualified investment fund means the design and creation of the fund, including research, the preparation and distribution of a prospectus for the fund, the registration of the fund with the Autorité des marchés financiers or any other securities supervisory agency, the marketing of the fund and the organization of the distribution of the shares of the fund;

“person” has the meaning assigned by Part I of the Taxation Act;

“physical security” means any security other than a financial derivative;

“province” has the meaning assigned by section 1 of the Taxation Act;

“qualified establishment” of a corporation means an establishment of the corporation in which it carries on its business and engages in activities pertaining to qualified international financial transactions or to one or more eligible contracts of the corporation and requiring that the corporation employ, at the establishment, at least six eligible employees, within the meaning of section 776.1.27 or 1029.8.36.166.61 of the Taxation Act;

“qualified international financial operation” includes activities that relate to services respecting conformity, due diligence, knowledge of the client, corporate finance and taxation, financial disclosure, risk management and data control and quality, but does not include activities relating to

(1) promotion or marketing;

(2) human and physical resource management; or

(3) information technologies, including the development of computer systems, the migration and modernization of technological platforms, computer support, business process automation and cybersecurity;

“qualified investment fund” means an investment fund that is a mutual fund within the meaning of section 5 of the Securities Act or a segregated account of a life insurance corporation established by a by-law of the insurance corporation or a resolution of the board of directors of the corporation;

“qualified security” means

(1) (paragraph repealed);

(2) a security issued by a Canadian corporation, if the transaction relating to the acquisition of the security was executed on an organized securities market situated outside Canada;

(3) a security issued by the Government of Canada or the government of a province, including a security issued by any of their respective state-owned corporations, other than a security governed by Canadian law; or

(4) a security relating to a foreign entity;

(5) a foreign financial derivative.

“qualified services in relation to a financial product” means the development of a new financial product or the designing of a customized financial product for a particular customer or situation;

“security” means, except for the purposes of the definition of “foreign financial entity”, a derivative within the meaning of section 3 of the Derivatives Act or any of the forms of investment listed in section 1 of the Securities Act, except a share in an investment club;

“specified shareholder” has the meaning assigned by sections 21.17 and 21.18 of the Taxation Act;

“strategic personnel” of a business of a corporation or partnership means the personnel of the corporation or partnership who is assigned to the direction and design of the back office activities carried on by the corporation or partnership in the course of the operations of the business or who has specific expertise in the field of back office activities and is assigned to client solicitation activities in relation to the back office activities carried on by the corporation or partnership in the course of those operations;

“taxation year” has the meaning assigned by Part I of the Taxation Act;

“ultimate beneficiary”, at any time, in respect of a corporation or partnership operating an international financial centre as an adviser, means a person or any member of a group of persons, if, directly or indirectly, in any manner whatsoever, the person or group of persons has, at that time, an interest of more than 10% in the securities the corporation or partnership manages in the course of the operations of the international financial centre or in respect of which the corporation or partnership provides advice in the course of those operations;

“underlying interest” means any security, commodity, financial instrument, currency, interest rate, foreign exchange rate, economic indicator, index, basket, contract, benchmark or other reference, interest or variable.

“urban agglomeration of Montréal” means the urban agglomeration described in section 4 of the Act respecting the exercise of certain municipal powers in certain urban agglomerations (chapter E-20.001).

1999, c. 86, s. 4; 2001, c. 51, s. 316; 2002, c. 9, s. 1; 2003, c. 9, s. 3; 2002, c. 45, s. 251; 2004, c. 21, s. 5; 2004, c. 37, s. 90; 2005, c. 23, s. 1; 2006, c. 13, s. 3; 2006, c. 50, s. 121; 2007, c. 12, s. 3; 2009, c. 15, s. 1; 2009, c. 58, s. 46; 2011, c. 1, s. 1; 2012, c. 1, s. 39; 2019, c. 14, s. 31; 2021, c. 362021, c. 36, s. 281.

2019-06-19 Show full text at this date