Canadian GST refund - ITRS

In article <5a974457.0409190524.2ddead69@com >,
dtren <dtren@my-deja.com> wrote:
>
>Well they claim:
>
>to pay in your own currency, not $CAN as the Canadian government do

The latter statement is not true. I got a refund from Canada Customs
and Revenue just a couple of years ago, and it was in U.S. dollars.
In fact, the cover note included this sentence: "To minimize the cost
of cashing this cheque, the Canadian government has converted the
amount of your rebate to American currency."


>not to charge a fee

I've never known a commercial refund agency that did not charge a fee.
Were you on a tour or at a convention and they made arrangements to
cover the ITRS fee? Seems unlikely, though.

BTW, I found the same problem that you did (authorization error) when
trying to access the ITRS website. But some other sites for hotels and
conventions said that ITRS's fee is $7.50 U.S. or $10% of the refund,
whichever is greater.

Does anyone know why hotels and other tourist places even carry the
commercial rebate forms? I'm assuming they get a kickback from the
rebate company, but I've never asked. I always make sure to pick up
a couple of government forms as I enter Canada.


Patty

Many thanks for all the replies, especially moveman who has actually
confirmed what's going on.

The Canadian government refunding in your own currency must be fairly
new - in any event there must be old forms all over the place which
say $CAN only. I am certain that the (government) forms I picked up
last year in Newfoundland (on the ferry) and this year in Vancouver
(rail station) did not mention it, or I'd have used one.

Given that it costs $CAN 25 to 40 to exchange a $CAN cheque in the UK
even a 10% fee doesn't seem too much to pay (in the lack of the above
knowledge).

And the stub of the ITRS envelope does say : 'ITRS provides
exceptional service for free' and 'ITRS does not charge a fee to
process your claim either'. I assume that whatever they were making
came from the exchange rate.

So I assume my receipts are lost, with a faint hope they might get
returned or sent on to the Canadian revenue. I shan't hold my breath.

On a slightly different tack, I believe there's a strike in the
Canadian Revenue at the moment - does it affect this area of their
work?