The Order remits certain excise taxes for qualifying diplomatic representatives buying or importing specified goods for personal or official use, subject to conditions and a reciprocity exception.
Order Respecting the Remission of Excise Taxes to Diplomatic and Other Representatives of Another Country This Order may be cited as the Diplomatic (Excise Taxes) Remission Order. In this Order, Minister means the Minister of National Revenue; (ministre) representative means the head of a diplomatic mission or the High Commissioner representing one of Her Majesty’s Governments, a counsellor, secretary, attaché or officer of equal rank at an embassy, legation or office of a High Commissioner in Canada, or a consul-general, consul, vice-consul, trade commissioner or assistant trade commissioner, who is a native or citizen of the country he represents and is not engaged in any other business or profession. (représentant) Subject to sections 4 and 5, remission is hereby granted of the excise taxes payable, under Parts III and IV of the Excise Tax Act, on cigars, cigarettes, manufactured tobaccos and wines, manufactured or produced in Canada and purchased by the representative for his personal or official use; and goods imported into Canada by the representative for his personal or official use. Remission is granted under this Order in respect of goods purchased or imported by a representative on condition that they are not sold or otherwise disposed of by him before they have been in his use or possession for one year. No remission will be granted under this Order to a representative of a government where the Under-Secretary of State for External Affairs has advised the Minister that full reciprocity is not being accorded by the government to offices, officials and employees of the Government of Canada. An application for remission shall be made on a form acceptable to the Minister and approved in the name of the head of the mission, consul post or trade commissioner’s office, as the case may be.