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RPP Consultation Session - Questions from the Industry
November 23, 2004
Questions and Answers - Archive
The following publications are archived and kept for historical purposes. Caution should be used when referring to these documents, as they may not reflect the law or policy currently in force. If you have any interpretative questions about the current law or policy, contact the Registered Plans Directorate by phone at (613) 954-0419. Also, see our list of current Questions from the Industry, RPP Consultation Session (November 23, 2004).
Question 11 - Streamlining the Waiver Process
In previous consultation sessions, the Registered Plans Directorate (RPD) said that it would look for ways to alleviate the administrative burden that the current process of approving lump sum payments in lieu of missed pension payments places on both the industry and RPD. Please provide an update.
Answer 11:
As mentioned at last year's consultation session, we had considered establishing criteria under which lump sum payments in lieu of missed pension payments could automatically be made without a need for case-by-case written approval from the Registered Plans Directorate. However, we determined that it was not feasible and advised that waiver requests would continue to be dealt with on a case-by-case basis. We have also researched the possibility of requesting an amendment to the instruments of delegation under the Income Tax Act. We recently determined that such an amendment is not feasible. Therefore, within the next four months we will institute revised internal procedures to allow routine waivers to be approved more quickly by eliminating certain levels of review.
Addendum: We have recently revised the internal review procedures with respect to the final downsizing approvals (subsection 8505(2) of the Income Tax Regulations) and non-resident administrator waiver requests (subsection 147.1(6) of the Income Tax Act). We will continue to look at the other waivers to determine if we can streamline our review procedures further.