Oh my God ... Common Sense from the Liberal Party !! I am AMAZED that saving the cost of a Referendum and just handing it to the MLAs to vote on it in the Legislature is actually being talked about.
If she pushes this adgenda ... she has my vote, pockets the anti-HST 15%+ voting block, & can look forward to winning any election.
So, how does Christy know 80% of voters don't want the HST. If,as she says, she thinks it is a good tax how would she vote? Oh,of course, she wouldn't even be able to vote she is not an MLA. Seems an awfully convenient position to take.
She also probably has no idea if it would be defeated. Informed BC electors are becoming more in support of this Tax. So we spend even more by calling back the house and then probably still have a referendum.
Getting "rid" of the acronym will not rid us of tax.
Yes the feeling of betrayal through it's implementation invites a gut reaction but it's too expensive an exercise.
Regardless of the name of the tax we'll still be paying provincial taxes.
If we want to do something positive let's lobby our MLAs for an amendment to take the personal tax reduction promised by Campbell and convert it to a 1% reduction of the HST.
We formerly paid 7% GST + 5% PST = 12%. I support an 11% HST total provincial consumer tax.
Let's be smart instead of emotional and lobby for a provincial consumer tax reduction without throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Something tells me if the vote went to the leg., the HST would stay especially if you have someone at the helm like Clark who is very much in favour of the HST.
The PST5% and GST7% was not always 12%; There were many excemptions of the PST so many things were 5% less. The HST costs consumers more. The HST is also a shift of taxes from business(they pay less) to you and me jane/joe average tax payer (we pay more).
80% of the goods and services that formerly attracted both taxes @ 12% now attract the HST @ 12% so no change on those items.
I suspect that the 20% that now attract both taxes, thus giving some businesses a partial exemption were previously paid for by Joe and Jane Average hidden in the costs of the businesses' goods and services.
Rather than the complicated exemption system as we had before I'd prefer a 1% consumption tax reduction for 11% HST overall but each to their own.
"I suspect that the 20% that now attract both taxes, thus giving some businesses a partial exemption were previously paid for by Joe and Jane Average hidden in the costs of the businesses' goods and services."
This implies to me that a savings should be passed on to the consumer. So where are the price reductions? There are none. All we see are higher costs with the extra 5% on most everything.
Not marginal in my opinion. I would consider 5% not 20% to be marginal especially for average and lower income earners.
I have no issue with the harmonization but, the tax shift for business especially big business is fundamentally wrong.
Democracy comes at a cost. They should have retracted the HST when the citizens initiative results came in instead of stalling and feeding us propaganda from now to September with your tax dollars.
Yes,it would be nice if all of the savings were passed on through competition. I think that in a few cases they are.
I prefer the HST as it allows our homegrown business to compete against other provinces and states.
Re the individual Prov. taxation costs.
An overall 1% reduction of HST to 11% would mean that we pay 1% less than before on 80% of our purchases and 6% more on 20% of them.
On $10,000 in purchases that would be $1060 ($8000 x 12$ + $2000 x 5% GST) under the old system and $1100 under the HST. I think that the $40 annual difference would be saved by reduced costs through competition. The ordinary consumer would be approx. back to the same annual provincial consumer tax cost that we paid before the HST.
So....we pay about what we used to pay annually in Prov. tax while retaining business competitiveness.
Win - win and no expensive $40million referendum necessary.
In my store the ONLY item whose tax rate has changed are about $30 per month worth of magazines which were taxed as books (5%) pre-July 1st but are now fully HST-able.
Everything else was 7% PST + 5% HST before though I had many customers who had provincial tax numbers (for resellers) who paid 5%. So instead of an input tax credit based on 5% they now get an input tax credit based on 12%.
I understand the HST is supposed to be favored by resource industries and the movie biz and hated by restaurants (who have a double whammy with the .05 alcohol regs) but for folks like me the change is minimal. I save the PST on my office supplies but how excited can you get about saving 7% on pens and toilet paper?
11 comments:
When are the other candidates coming to the North Shore?
Oh my God ... Common Sense from the Liberal Party !! I am AMAZED that saving the cost of a Referendum and just handing it to the MLAs to vote on it in the Legislature is actually being talked about.
If she pushes this adgenda ... she has my vote, pockets the anti-HST 15%+ voting block, & can look forward to winning any election.
So, how does Christy know 80% of voters don't want the HST. If,as she says, she thinks it is a good tax how would she vote? Oh,of course, she wouldn't even be able to vote she is not an MLA. Seems an awfully convenient position to take.
She also probably has no idea if it would be defeated. Informed BC electors are becoming more in support of this Tax. So we spend even more by calling back the house and then probably still have a referendum.
HST, PST, XYZ. A tax by another other name...
Getting "rid" of the acronym will not rid us of tax.
Yes the feeling of betrayal through it's implementation invites a gut reaction but it's too expensive an exercise.
Regardless of the name of the tax we'll still be paying provincial taxes.
If we want to do something positive let's lobby our MLAs for an amendment to take the personal tax reduction promised by Campbell and convert it to a 1% reduction of the HST.
We formerly paid 7% GST + 5% PST = 12%. I support an 11% HST total provincial consumer tax.
Let's be smart instead of emotional and lobby for a provincial consumer tax reduction without throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Something tells me if the vote went to the leg., the HST would stay especially if you have someone at the helm like Clark who is very much in favour of the HST.
The PST5% and GST7% was not always 12%; There were many excemptions of the PST so many things were 5% less. The HST costs consumers more. The HST is also a shift of taxes from business(they pay less) to you and me jane/joe average tax payer (we pay more).
John, yes a marginal shift.
80% of the goods and services that formerly attracted both taxes @ 12% now attract the HST @ 12% so no change on those items.
I suspect that the 20% that now attract both taxes, thus giving some businesses a partial exemption were previously paid for by Joe and Jane Average hidden in the costs of the businesses' goods and services.
Rather than the complicated exemption system as we had before I'd prefer a 1% consumption tax reduction for 11% HST overall but each to their own.
"I suspect that the 20% that now attract both taxes, thus giving some businesses a partial exemption were previously paid for by Joe and Jane Average hidden in the costs of the businesses' goods and services."
This implies to me that a savings should be passed on to the consumer. So where are the price reductions? There are none. All we see are higher costs with the extra 5% on most everything.
Not marginal in my opinion. I would consider 5% not 20% to be marginal especially for average and lower income earners.
I have no issue with the harmonization but, the tax shift for business especially big business is fundamentally wrong.
Democracy comes at a cost. They should have retracted the HST when the citizens initiative results came in instead of stalling and feeding us propaganda from now to September with your tax dollars.
Yes,it would be nice if all of the savings were passed on through competition. I think that in a few cases they are.
I prefer the HST as it allows our homegrown business to compete against other provinces and states.
Re the individual Prov. taxation costs.
An overall 1% reduction of HST to 11% would mean that we pay 1% less than before on 80% of our purchases and 6% more on 20% of them.
On $10,000 in purchases that would be $1060 ($8000 x 12$ + $2000 x 5% GST) under the old system and $1100 under the HST. I think that the $40 annual difference would be saved by reduced costs through competition. The ordinary consumer would be approx. back to the same annual provincial consumer tax cost that we paid before the HST.
So....we pay about what we used to pay annually in Prov. tax while retaining business competitiveness.
Win - win and no expensive $40million referendum necessary.
In my store the ONLY item whose tax rate has changed are about $30 per month worth of magazines which were taxed as books (5%) pre-July 1st but are now fully HST-able.
Everything else was 7% PST + 5% HST before though I had many customers who had provincial tax numbers (for resellers) who paid 5%. So instead of an input tax credit based on 5% they now get an input tax credit based on 12%.
I understand the HST is supposed to be favored by resource industries and the movie biz and hated by restaurants (who have a double whammy with the .05 alcohol regs) but for folks like me the change is minimal. I save the PST on my office supplies but how excited can you get about saving 7% on pens and toilet paper?
John!
Good to see you still promoting the Fight HST that you and I worked on. Keep up the good work.
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