harmonized sales tax

March 30, 2013 3:00AM

Return of the PST darkens BC economy

April 1st is an important day for British Columbians and we're not referring to the Easter long weekend. On that day BC officially scraps the HST and in one fell swoop restores the old Provincial Sales Tax system.

But moving back to the PST will cause harm to the provincial economy and BC families will lose out on the increased prosperity and jobs that the HST would have encouraged. Since our province will be poorer with the PST, it falls on our political leaders to take action to lessen the impact.

Tags:

taxation, HST, PST, GST, business taxation, harmonized sales tax, sales taxes, provincial sales tax, british columbia

August 30, 2011 2:00AM

HST's defeat a blow to investors

Niels Veldhuis, Charles Lammam

With Labour Day just around the corner and British Columbia's unemployment rate at 7.3 per cent, Premier Christy Clark's promise of a jobs agenda is welcome news. Unfortunately, her actions haven't backed up her words.

Tags:

HST, harmonized sales tax, taxes, labour

August 26, 2011 2:00AM

Mitigating the crushing blow to BC's competitiveness

Niels Veldhuis, Charles Lammam

With the defeat of the harmonized sales tax (HST), B.C.s competitiveness will suffer a crushing blow, as the province experiences a rebirth of the provincial sales tax (PST). The unfortunate reality is that restoring the PST will lead to a reduction in investment and job creation. It now falls on Premier Christy Clark and her colleagues to show leadership and put forth a tax plan to mitigate the unrealized economic gains that the HST would have encouraged.

Tags:

HST, taxes, harmonized sales tax, PST, income tax

July 20, 2011 2:00AM

Going back to the PST-GST means higher taxes for all BC families

Milagros Palacios, Charles Lammam

After two years of heated debate, many British Columbians are still confused about how to vote in the current mail-in referendum on the HST. The choice before them is to either keep the HSTwhich the government has promised to reduce to 10 per cent from 12 per centor restore the old PST/GST system at a total rate of 12 per cent.

To help British Columbians decide, we have calculated the impact of restoring the PST/GST on the tax bill of BC families (with two or more individuals) at various income levels using the Fraser Institutes Canadian Tax Simulator.

Tags:

HST, harmonized sales tax, PST, GST, taxes, tax

June 3, 2011 2:00AM

A vote for the HST is a vote for an earlier Tax Freedom Day

Niels Veldhuis, Milagros Palacios

Happy Tax Freedom Day! Monday, British Columbians start working for themselves. In other words, if we had to pay all our taxes up front, we would have to pay each and every dollar we earned from January 1 to June 5 to various levels of government.

This of course, translates into an awful lot of money. In fact, the average British Columbian family with two or more individuals will hand-over about $36,600 in taxes to their federal, provincial and local governments (42.7% of their income).

Tags:

HST, tax freedom day, harmonized sales tax, taxation, taxes, hst referendum

June 29, 2010 2:00AM