Commercial brokers in discussions with CRA over excise tax rules

The Toronto Insurance Conference [TIC] and the Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario [IBAO] are in discussions with the Canada Revenue Agency [CRA] about recent changes to the CRAs rules regarding the payment of excise taxes when dealing with foreign, unlicensed insurance markets.
Generally speaking in Canada, clients of commercial insurance brokers must pay an excise tax of anywhere between 10-50% (depending on the province) for securing insurance capacity from foreign, unlicensed markets, according to TIC president Peter McCann of HKMB International Insurance Brokers.
Previously, if clients could prove that not enough capacity existed in the Canadian market to insure their risk and therefore it was necessary to go to an unlicensed market to find the capacity they were entitled to an exemption from paying the CRAs excise tax. But times have quickly changed, according to McCann.
Now theyre requiring five letters of declaration from insurance companies prior to the [inception] of the policy, whereas often things arent done by that date, McCann said in an interview. Secondly, youre requiring the insurance companies, who really dont have a vested interest, to write a letter in a certain time frame
This is a rule that TIC has brought up with CRA as being somewhat unfair, and [TIC is now acting as an] advocate for our clients.
TIC is an Ontario-based association of commercial insurance brokers.