Why is hst good for bc

But those are reasons for voting for a change in government, not to restore the PST. The fact is, despite all the good arguments of my old school mate David Schreck , the PST is an inefficient tax.

There is the obvious duplication of tax collection and payment with the our very own PST. And there is the more subtle, but still significant problem of charging sales tax on goods whose prices already include sales tax paid on the B.

If someone wants to implement higher energy prices, natural resource royalties, congestion charges, solid waste fees— a serious effort to capture resource rents and to tax environmental and social costs — I am all for it.

If you use an ad blocker, please consider a small contribution to help keep TaxTips. See the Ministry of Finance news release. One of his points was "In my view, the consumer either pays the tax directly via a value-added tax like the HST or indirectly through a tax embedded in the cost of the product. Either way the consumer pays the tax. Much of the cost of the PST to consumers is hidden , by being embedded in the costs of businesses.

This includes the PST on the cost of gas, computers, equipment, furniture and fixtures, shelving, vehicles, consumables such as office supplies, services to repair computers, equipment, etc. This means that we have been paying hidden PST costs even on those items on which PST was not added to the selling price , such as restaurant meals, movie tickets, sporting events, haircuts, etc. It was not only a tax on consumers, but a tax on business investment. If a business wanted to purchase assets to build a business and hire employees, it would have to pay PST on those assets.

This means that the business has to charge more for its products, to recover the cost of the PST. The other option would have been to start the business in a more tax-friendly locality. These rules apply to specified property or services, which generally means a road vehicle, energy, a telecommunication service, or meals or entertainment. Former premier Gordon Campbell announced the surprise move to a harmonized sales tax in , following his victory in the May provincial election.

The surprise announcement sparked widespread outrage and a campaign to repeal the HST spearheaded by former B.

Vander Zalm's popular campaign to repeal that tax ended up collecting more than , signatures on a petition to trigger a referendum. But before his resignation last fall Campbell said the results of the referendum would be binding.

Since July the HST has combined the five per cent federal GST with the seven per cent provincial sales tax for a harmonized 12 per cent tax. Consumers pay an extra seven per cent tax on restaurant meals, airline tickets, funerals and haircuts — all items that were previously exempt from the PST. British Columbia B. Social Sharing. HST's political fallout 10 years ago Latest External Links HST referendum results by riding.