Criteria

Treaty-based waivers will be granted if the following criteria are met:

Days in Canada

Refers to the time during which the applicant will provide services in Canada for each project. Items taken into account are:

Behind-the-Scenes (BTS) applicant

A behind-the-scenes applicant is an individual, corporation, partnership or joint venture seeking a waiver or reduction in the amount of the prescribed withholding tax for services provided in Canada.

Loan-out corporation

A loan-out corporation is a corporation primarily intended to provide the services of an individual who is a shareholder of the corporation, or is related to a shareholder of the corporation.

Major studios (MS)

Major studios are large film studios and large production or distribution companies.

Period

Period refers to the current calendar year, the three immediately preceding calendar years, and the three immediately following calendar years. For the following years, we consider only activities under confirmed or signed contracts unless the applicant can reasonably estimate the level of activity in Canada in those future years.

If the waiver is requested for services that cover more than one year, the current year is the year in which the services commence.

Production company

A production company is an organization or business that develops and produces film or digitally recorded visual productions.

Production site

A production site ia a geographic location in Canada used for a project, determined relative to the industry and type of activity (e.g. shooting a feature film) under consideration. A production site, therefore, is not limited to the production office, studio space, or studios lots used by the non resident, unless all production activities occur there. It could also be the metropolitan area of a large city if the activities are performed in various places within that area. For example, services performed in a production studio in Vancouver would be combined with services performed on the same project in other locations in the Vancouver area.

Project

A project is a production in Canada of a film or digitally recorded visual production, including feature films, television movies, television series, episodes, documentaries, video productions and commercials.

Related Projects

Projects are related when the second continues the services provided as part of the first project and are carried out by the same production company or major studio. Projects are also related if the services performed by the BTS applicant are provided under the same contract for services. For example, when the BTS applicant is under contract to a major studio to perform services on a number of separate projects, the projects are considered to be related.

Repetitive services

Services are considered repetitive when the BTS applicant routinely provides services in Canada in the same geographic location.

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