- CRA accepts the bifurcation of a gift card for GST/HST purposes
- Supplier issues gift cards with stipulated monetary values
- Supplier also issues “complimentary gift cards” as a promotion or customer service gesture
- Complimentary value of a gift card can be treated as a “coupon” for GST/HST purposes
- Conditions for treating the complimentary value as a coupon include tracking and accounting for it separately, redeeming it as full or partial consideration, and extinguishing it before applying any top-up value
- Top-up value added to the gift card is considered the issuance or sale of a gift certificate for consideration
- When redeemed, the top-up value is deemed to be applied as money
Source: taxinterpretations.com
Note that this post was (partially) written with the help of AI. It is always useful to review the original source material, and where needed to obtain (local) advice from a specialist.
