Print This Page

Under the International Financial Activity Act (IFAA), a company, incorporated in Canada with a permanent establishment in British Columbia, can register for up to a 100% refund of its provincial corporate taxes on income from eligible activities.

Qualifying Activities under the IFAA

Administratiive Services

• Providing, to a non-resident person, administrative support services directly related to a financial activity of a non-resident person.
• An internal support function, such as a computer help-desk, working directly with non-resident employees can be considered an administrative support service. Call centres, marketing and advertising are excluded by regulation.

Back-up services

• Providing to a non-resident person, services, equipment and premises for continuing the business operations of the non-resident person if primary equipment or premises used by the non-resident person becomes temporarily non-operational.

• Activities may be transacted on an arm’s length, non-arm’s length, or affiliated basis.
• IFA Specialists do not qualify for this activity.
• Income earned by the office on the registered business can qualify for a full refund of corporate taxes paid to the Province of British Columbia.

Other reasons to locate in BC

• British Columbia boasts a diversified, well-educated labour pool.  65 per cent of British Columbia employees have post-secondary education and more than 24 per cent hold a university degree. (Statistics Canada, 2006)
• Almost 40,000 skilled workers immigrated to British Columbia between 2001 and 2005, bringing offshore contact networks and talent in cross-cultural communications. (Government of BC; 2008.)
• In 2008, Vancouver ranked fourth worldwide in overall quality of living. (Mercer Human Resources Consulting; 2008)
• British Columbia’s high quality, diverse labour pool of 2.2 million grew by 300,000 between 1994 and 2005. (Government of BC; 2008.)

Registering A Business

To be eligible to register under the International Financial Activity (IFA) program, a company’s international financial business must be part of an active business and carried on through an office in British Columbia. Further details on the IFA program can be found in Bulletin IFA 001, International Financial Activity Overview.

The IFA program is administered by the BC Ministry of Small Business and Revenue, Revenue Programs Division, Income Taxation Branch. For more information regarding the legislation or provincial registration, please visit their website.