The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) outlines on how GST/HST applies to the importation of donor oocytes (eggs) under the Act in the publication Excise and GST/HST No.97 November 2015.
Importations of goods relieved from tax for GST/HST purposes are set out in Schedule VII to the Act. Section 6 of Schedule VII provides for the non-taxable importation of, among others, goods the supply of which is included in Part I of Schedule VI, Drugs and Biologicals.
Excise Tax Act Section 2 of Part I of Schedule VI zero-rates certain supplies of drugs and substances. It is the CRA’s position that supplies of human sperm and oocytes are not drugs that are included in section 2 of Part I of Schedule VI and therefore are not zero-rated under this section. In addition, section 5 of Part I of Schedule VI zero-rates supplies of human sperm. There is no corresponding provision in the Act that zero-rates supplies of human oocytes.
Human oocytes do not qualify as a non-taxable importation under section 6 of Schedule VII. As such, GST at 5% will generally apply at the time of importation to human donor oocytes imported into Canada by donor banks, fertility clinics or other health care facilities.
However, where a patient of a fertility clinic or other health care facility undergoes treatment or other service at the clinic which includes the implantation of a human donor oocyte, the CRA considers that the supply of human donor oocytes made by the clinic to the patient in these circumstances may generally be part of an exempt supply of an institutional health care service.