Say you’re at a casino (or anywhere else) and you get a cash advance voucher from a cash kiosk and the casino gives you the cash. You pay a fee for that service and the kiosk company pays a fee to the casino (or store, etc.). You don’t pay GST on the financing fee. But should the cash advance company pay GST on its fee to the casino? No.
It may seem obvious that the fee shared with the casino is all part of the same financing but it wasn’t obvious to the TCC judge. Also, the FCA decision might not apply in similar cases. For example, suppose you go to a grocery store and use the ATM. The ATM provider fills the machine with cash and pays a fee to the store to rent space. The fee to the store is probably taxable. (See Mac’s Convenience Stores Inc. v. The Queen, 2012 TCC 393 (Hogan))
In the Global case, the casinos actually supplied the cash to patrons, based on cheque-vouchers issued by Global through either its kiosks or the casino cashiers. So, the casinos were offering an exempt financial service to Global
“within paragraph (g) of the statutory definition of ‘financial service’ (‘the making of any advance, the granting of any credit or the lending of money’…
“… because the heart of each transaction is an advance of money by the Casinos, disbursed to casino patrons at Global’s direction, and repayable by Global.” (Paras. 29-30.)
See Global Cash Access (Canada) Inc. v. Canada, (2013 FCA Sharlow)