Letter to the Editor:
There has been much discussion and criticism of the BC HST (a.k.a. ‘hated sales tax’). Most of the criticism is directed toward the Provincial government having misled the citizens as to the fact the it made a 180 degree turn in deciding to bring it in, especially so soon after having won the previous election and previously expressing that it wasn’t considering the HST. A second area of criticism is that there are about 25 % more items now taxed that weren’t taxed by the former PST. Other areas of concern include the unevenness of the application of the HST: lower income earners will receive an HST rebate that higher income earners will not receive; depending on spending habits some will be affected more than others; through the input tax credit aspect businesses, as a group, will save about $ 2 billion in costs; certain businesses will now have to charge a higher tax on revenue (previously it may have been zero or just 5 %, as in the case of restaurants) and this may negatively impact those businesses.
The option to rescind the tax and to go back to what we had (i.e. the PST) unfortunately, is not as simple as it sounds: The Federal Government is supporting the new HST to the tune of $ 1.6 billion; businesses have incurred a variety of expenses in switching over and it would be unfair to have them switch back; refunding HST already paid would be very difficult and expensive to do; the government is currently saving costs in not administering a PST division.
However, I have a modest proposal. The first step would be to totally eliminate the HST and not go back to the former PST tax system. This, I am sure would make many happy. However, we need to replace the taxes somehow. Well, the good news is that there are segments of society that currently do not pay taxes and we can learn on how to make them pay from what is done in other parts of the world.
Illegal drugs in BC are big business. The State of Tennessee taxes the possession of illegal drugs. According to CNN, “you have 48 hours to report to the Department of Revenue and pay your tax” on any illegal substance you purchase in Tennessee, after which you will get “stamps to affix to your illegal substance” which “serve as evidence you paid the tax on the illegal product.” Tennessee does not require any identification whatsoever to get the stamps, and “it’s illegal for revenue employees to rat you out.”
Taxes on cow flatulence have been proposed in several European countries in recent years, including Ireland and Denmark. The outcries for these taxes came on the heels of a U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization study claiming that 18% of the greenhouse gases believed to cause global warming can be traced back to the unsavory “byproducts” of livestock. The Danish Tax Commission took it even further, estimating that “a cow will emit four tons of methane a year in burps and flatulence” while an average car emits just 2.7 tons of carbon dioxide during the same period.
Alternatively, perhaps a more practical way to satisfy the general taxpayer in BC is to lower the HST from 12 % to 10 %. The lower rate would offset those many extra items that we are now paying the extra 7 % on. Those businesses that have to charge higher sales taxes will see less of a negative impact. The BC government is touting the HST will create more jobs in the business community so a lower HST (i.e. lower tax revenue) will be made up by a more healthy economy generating more taxes in general.
____________________________________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment