Cryptocurrency taxation update
On May 17, 2019, the Department of Finance released proposals to amend the Excise Tax Act (Canada) to treat certain virtual currency as a financial instrument for GST/HST purposes.
blockchain
Blockchain: Just because it’s a buzzword doesn’t mean it’s not the future of the supply chain
In the 2018 contaminated lettuce incident, what if it had been possible to trace the exact path of each shipment of lettuce and then remove from the marketplace only those products that could reasonably have been affected? With blockchain, that would have been possible.
The future of securities regulation of distributed ledger technologies
The following discussion provides a general description of blockchain and distributed ledger technologies (DLT) and the current state of the regulatory landscape in Ontario.
To date, the Ontario Securities Commission has not explicitly categorized a blockchain token or coin (which are further discussed below) as an investment contract or other type of security under section 1(1) of the Securities Act (Ontario) (the OSA), but did issue a press release on March 7, 2017, advising market participants that products or other assets that are tracked and traded as part of a distributed ledger may qualify as securities, even if they do not represent shares of a company or similar ownership interests. A business’ specific use of DLT may trigger Ontario securities law requirements, including the need to be registered or to file a prospectus. Any business that is operating or planning to operate a DLT-based venture should consider the nature of … Continue reading “The future of securities regulation of distributed ledger technologies”
