There is a little-known refund of excise tax on gasoline for persons with physical disabilities and for registered charities.
This refund is provided under the Federal Excise Gasoline Tax Refund Program, and is legislated in subsection 68.16(1) of the Excise Tax Act. It is a refund of $0.015 per litre of gasoline purchased (the CRA also allows $0.0015 per kilometre driven). The gasoline must have been acquired “for the sole use of the purchaser and not for resale”.
Any registered charity (or registered Canadian amateur athletic association) can claim the refund. It is also available to “a person who has been certified by a qualified medical practitioner to be suffering from a permanent impairment of locomotion to such an extent that the use of public transportation by that person would be hazardous”.
The rebate can be claimed for up to two years from the date of purchase. To apply for the rebate, download Form XE8 from the CRA’s website, www.cra.gc.ca. The back of the form includes instructions and further details.
For more information on this program, one can also call the CRA’s Gasoline Tax Refund Unit at 1-877-432-5472.