Harmonized Sales Tax - British Columbia

[HST]

And the Tyee has also published a couple PRO HST columns too. Here is the latest:
http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2011/07/13/LoveHSTMore/

It provides yet another POV about why the Left should support the PST.

titan5: Looks like your fingers were flying too fast on the keyboard and made a tax typo!! You meant HST and not PST, I do believe.

[titan5]

Correct and corrected. Thanks.

[Leondegrance]

As an individual (let's forget about jobs/income taxes, businesses, the economy, etc...), what would you say will cost me more over a year in living expenses - gas/phone&Internet/electric bills, utility bills, home insurance, car insurance, gasoline, food, and... let's say I plan on buying a house.

So what am I better off with, HST or GST+PST? It's a simple numbers question. The lower number wins.

[HST]

Leondegrance: Have you seen this document that the BC government issued over a year ago? It provides examples of common products and services and shows whether or not they are affected by harmonization.

Apparently, 80% of the tax base was already PST taxable (at 7%), prior to harmonization on July 1, 2010.

www.hstinbc.ca/media/GST_PST_HST_List_v04.pdf
What’s Taxable under the HST and What’s Not?

Document also contains informative footnotes and advises that it is not an exhaustive list of all goods and services. You refer to yourself as an "individual", so you should be eligible for HST quarterly rebates if your net income is no more than $20,000. (believe this is the income threshold for an individual). You may want to contact Canada Revenue Agency on this.

[All Ages Music Concerts]

Some people I have spoken with that receive the HST cheques say it is the same amount when they received the GST cheque. Difference is: more is taxed since the HST that was not taxed before. So how come the low income pay more; but receive the same as before the HST came into affect. I think they have a valid guestion.

[titan5]

...according to recent Province article:
http://www.theprovince.com/business/...791/story.html

[The other Pat]

Just cause someone(s) says something, doesn't make it true.... even if they are economists.

Notice that they do not show how they came to their figures.

The HST will cost more. For incomes between 20,000 and 40,000 they will pay $2000 more in HST.

[titan5]

Just cause someone(s) says something, doesn't make it true.... even if they are economists.

Notice that they do not show how they came to their figures.

The HST will cost more. For incomes between 20,000 and 40,000 they will pay $2000 more in HST.

And just because you disagree with someone doesn't make them wrong. I am simply providing the information and hopefully people can make up their own minds.

[HST]

... For incomes between 20,000 and 40,000 they will pay $2000 more in HST.

I would find it very instructive if you could please explain how you arrived at your calculation.

-You refer to an income range of between $20,000 to $40,000, so as some additional goods and services are taxable at 7%, would that not mean that the consumer in the income range that you are referring to, would be paying 7% on approximatey $30,000 worth of goods/services that were not taxed at 7% prior to July 1, 2010, which was the date of harmonization? Look forward to reading your response.

-On another note, regarding income tax: Wondering if you are aware that the basic personal income tax credit was increased to $11,000 from $9,373, effective January 1, 2010.

[The other Pat]

I guess that you did not get my point. My point was that the article posted did not provide sources for their information. Anyone can say anything that they want but without some kind of information on where they got their figures, the information is useless, much like my statement.

I understand that the independent panel said that the HST will be costing the "average" family about $1200 per year more, but they discounted that figure 90% because they expect that companies will drop their prices enough to save people 90% of the HST that they are paying now.

So the government uses the discounted amount as the amount we will pay more. Unless they force companies to reduce prices the “discounted” price is just speculation.

Bottom line, the HST will cost the average family about $1200.00 more.
Pat