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Jamie M. Wilks
Partner
Toronto
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Tel :
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416.865.7804
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Fax :
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416.865.7048
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Professional Experience
Jamie M. Wilks is a lawyer and partner at the Toronto office of the Canadian law firm of McMillan. He practises in the tax, customs and international trade law areas. His taxation practice focuses on commodity taxes, such as the excise taxes, provincial retail sales taxes (PST), and the multi-stage value-added taxes (VAT), specifically the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) in five of the Canadian provinces, the federal Goods & Services Tax (GST) in the rest of Canada, and the Quebec Sales Tax (QST).
He advises on customs tariff classification, valuation and tariff treatment (origin) of imported goods to ensure compliance and to minimize or eliminate duties, wherever possible. He navigates clients through the complex myriad of regulatory rules that govern international trade in goods, including Canadian import and export controls. He represents clients seeking to challenge government procurement practices under Chapter 10 of NAFTA and the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement and the Agreement on Internal Trade.
He disputes government proceedings taken against corporate directors for recovery of taxes for amounts owed by their corporations to the government. He provides legal opinions regarding the priority of government claims for customs duties, taxes and other levies relative to other creditors. Jamie has advised clients on Canadian income tax transfer pricing rules for international financial transactions and cross-border transactions in goods, services, and intellectual property between related parties.
Jamie has successfully disputed proposed assessments at the audit stage and final assessments, resulting in substantial duties, taxes, interest and penalties savings for clients. He advises on how to structure transactions to minimize or eliminate tax and duty costs, and assist clients in making tax and duty refund/relief claims. He has appeared before the Canadian International Trade Tribunal (CITT), the Tax Court of Canada (TCC) and the Canadian federal and Ontario courts to represent clients' interests in international trade, customs and tax matters. He acts for clients in making customs, tax and other voluntary disclosures to governmental authorities for non-compliance to avoid interest, penalties and other sanctions. He prepares and submits to the customs and tax authorities interpretation and ruling requests. He negotiates collection matters with the revenue authorities.
His trade law experience extends to Canada's bilateral and multilateral trade agreements, including origin verification to secure preferential tariff treatment for automotive imports pursuant to the Canada-Costa Rica and Canada-Chile Free Trade Agreements and NAFTA. He advises on the NAFTA and other rules of origin for preferential tariff treatment, and represents importers, exporters and producers in origin verification audits. He has represented importers, exporters and Canadian producers in various anti-dumping and countervailing (subsidies) duty cases.
Jamie has written extensively for various publications and spoken on numerous occasions at conferences and symposiums on many different aspects of commodity taxation, customs and trade law.
Jamie has serviced clients from a broad range of industries and sectors including major national and international financial institutions, private and public investment funds, real estate conglomerates, public corporations, energy producers, traders and distributors, telecommunications and technology companies, advertising agencies, manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, government departments and entities, charities and non-profit organizations.
publications and presentations
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- automotive
- international business and trade law
- investment funds and asset management
- tax
- tax litigation and dispute resolution
- Canadian Bar Association (CBA) International Law Section, Customs and Trade Sub-Committee
- CBA Commodity Tax, Customs and Trade Section
- CBA International Trade and Investment Sub-Committee
- Co-Editor, Sales and Use Tax, Federated Press
Called to the Ontario bar
- 1989
University of Toronto, LLB
- 1987
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