Industry committee  Of course, tax will be collected once that coin is used to purchase goods and services, if it's in Canada.

Industry committee  I would contrast that, as I mentioned before, with the mining of precious metals. With the refining, the mining is fully taxable. The refining is why I called it “zero-rated”. You're eligible to claim back those credits, and then, upon sale, not charge the tax on the precious metals.

Industry committee  The closest I would assimilate this to would be the financial services sector. Their legislation is written completely differently from this. It's exempt and not non-commercial activity, which is a new concept. With that, there is a zero-rating provision. Notably, for financial institutions that have some activities with non-residents, that's considered to be zero-rated and not exempt, which means it gives them the opportunity to claim their input tax credits.

Industry committee  It would be anyone who is touched by this legislation, and the legislation is incredibly broad. It's referring to crypto assets, which by definition is anyone who has a publicly distributed ledger—I'm paraphrasing—so it goes well beyond bitcoin, well beyond that definition of a virtual payment instrument that I mentioned before.

Industry committee  I would say it's probably most focused on what they're defining as crypto assets in the proposed legislation more broadly than on our typical cryptocurrency. It seems like NFTs, for instance, might be captured under that, but it's definitely more restrictive than blockchain as a whole.

Industry committee  I'm sorry. Could you repeat that?

Industry committee  Thank you for the question. I will say that I'm encouraging legislation on the matter, but just legislation that makes sense with the industry. As it exists today, there are limited amendments to the legislation to treat cryptocurrency. There was a definition for “virtual payment instrument” added to the definition of “financial instrument” that captures some of the cryptocurrency, but not all.

Industry committee  Thank you. Hello, Mr. Chairman. My name is Tamara Rozansky. I'm a partner in the indirect tax team at Deloitte Canada based in our Montreal office. I'm a tax policy adviser to the coalition. Let me start by saying we appreciate that tax matters are usually a topic for your colleagues on the Standing Committee on Finance, but in this instance, as it could impact the future of blockchain technology in Canada, the coalition's disagreement with the Department of Finance is directly on point.