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| from left David Robertson,tax specialist from Vancouver, Conner Stewart, Manager, Staples, Cindy Popescule, local accountant, Dr. Nick Rubidge, moderator, Bill VanderZalm, Fight HST |
- a number of small business people including a property manager, a video photographer and a business owner from Trail spoke about how their businesses and customers had suffered since implementation of HST
- the manager of our local Staples store could not tell us prices will drop
- despite the prefacing with ‘Let me be clear”, David Robertson a tax specialist from Vancouver could not give clear (for this listener) answers to most of the questions
- Mr Robertson repeatedly told us we were voting on a 10% tax and at this time that is not true and will not be until 2014
- Cindy Popescule focussed on benefits to those with low income, but there are many more with middle incomes who will not see those benefits and this was not addressed
- many more goods and services will now be taxed
- that the bottom line for many people present was the fact that the government had not been open and honest and that there is a lot of mistrust
Government Site:
http://www.hstinbc.ca/making_your_choice/
Fight HST Site:
http://fighthst.com/
List of items to which HST applied:-
http://www.fighthst.com/wp-content/uploads/HST-List.pdf
I moved from Sask and I like the HST. Everything is treated the same, whether a bag of dirt or a Tim's donut. I don't have to do calculations in my head whether the provincial sales tax is included and all services, rather than some, are included. Of course the people against the HST are mostly lawyers and those who want to be paid in cash (no HST rebate then). I believe I pay less tax now than I did before plus I know what the tax is since it isn't hidden.
ReplyDeleteThe HST on gasoline may be considered another carbon tax which should discourage more carbon emissions.