Ontario Farmers: File Your Fuel Charge Exemption Certificate by April 1st

The new federal fuel surcharge comes into effect in Ontario next week.  Also known as the “carbon tax”, it stems from the 2018 federal Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act that established a standard for reducing pollution for provinces and territories that didn’t have their own polluting pricing system. The new fuel charge stemming will apply to Ontario because the provincial government scrapped the province’s cap and trade program last fall.

The new surcharge will be added to fuel sold in Ontario for air, marine, rail and road use. Ontario farmers are eligible for an exemption for some forms of fuel for tractors, trucks and machinery used on the farm if they file by the April 1st deadline.  The exemption applies to charges for fuels (gasoline and light fuel oil) used in tractors, trucks or other farm machinery, and is secured by completing an exemption form available through Canada’s Revenue Agency (CRA).

Eligible farming machinery is property that is primarily used for the purposes of farming and that is a farm truck or tractor, a vehicle not licensed to be operated on a public road, or an industrial machine or stationary or portable engine.

While the exemption is applauded, the agricultural community feel it does not go far enough.  The Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA) and its members are advocating for full exemption on all farm fuels, including natural gas and propane.  They see the taxation of inputs to food production as a regressive tax that is either passed on to consumers or punitive to farmers if it cannot be passed on in the price of food.

Fill out the exemption form today, available online on the CRA website, and provide a copy to your fuel distributor. Keep an additional copy for your own farm records.

Access the form at www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/forms-publications/forms/l402.html. KG

 

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