BC Gov explains HST 'benefits'

The BC Government has set up a new section on its main website at http://www.gov.bc.ca/hst/ with a wealth of information about the Harmonized Sales Tax.

The government claims that the main benefit of HST is that it will eliminate the retail sales tax burden for business, making BC more competitive and attracting more businesses and business investment.

The savings to business will purportedly be passed on to consumers through lower prices and will be spent by businesses to create more jobs. There does not seem to be any explanation of why lower taxes would be attractive to business if the savings are simply passed on to consumers and workers. And there is no promise that the latter predictions will come true. [Read more]

Why the HST and why now?

Message from Honourable Minister Colin Hansen on HST.

Dear friends,

I know many of you have questions about how the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) works and why our government made the decisions it did. I would like to address some of the questions I have been receiving from you.

The leading economists and think tanks tell us that the introduction of the HST is the single biggest thing we can do to improve our economy by making our businesses more competitive and encouraging billions in new investment. This will result in higher productivity, higher wages and lower consumer costs. [Read more]

HST will hurt tourism

New Harmonized Sales Tax will hit tourism industry hardest.

The tourism industry is being dealt a double blow by the implementation of the BC Liberal Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) and some local tourism operators are concerned they will not be able to survive, says Columbia River – Revelstoke MLA Norm Macdonald.

HST, which will combine the federal goods and services tax (GST) and the provincial sales tax (PST), will be applied to goods and services that were previously PST exempt. Current PST exemptions within the tourism industry will disappear with harmonization significantly raising the cost to consumers.

“Local adventure tourism operators are telling me that this added cost will seriously affect their businesses,” said Macdonald. “And in the case of businesses with fixed-priced contracts in place for after July 1, 2010, the extra cost of the tax cannot be passed on to the consumer.” [Read more]