Bend Over, Harmonized Sales Tax Coming
Written on Jul 23rd, 2009
British Columbia just announced that they are going to be switching to a harmonized sales tax model in July of next year. Basically, instead of having a provincial sales tax (PST) of 7%, and a goods and services tax (GST) of 5%, they are going to have one combined tax, a harmonized sales tax (HST) of 12%. I’m no economist, but that seems like a pretty bad idea. Here’s a quote from the official release: This is the single biggest thing we can do to improve B.C.’s economy,” said Premier Gordon Campbell. “This is an essential step to make our businesses more competitive, encourage billions of dollars in new investment, lower costs on productivity and reduce administrative costs to B.C. taxpayers and businesses. Most importantly, this will create jobs and generate long-term economic growth that will in turn generate more revenue to sustain and improve crucial public services.” Huh? How […]
