Lik

To: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
Cc: [email protected]

Dear Mr. Campbell and Mr. Hansen,

I am deeply concerned about the negative financial impact the proposed 12% HST will have on the typical average BC resident. In particular, I am deeply concerned about how it will affect the lives of the more grassroot people in BC.

Firstly, let me assure you that I am not fundamentally against combining the PST and GST into a single HST. I understand that doing so will vastly simply matters for local businesses when they remit tax dollars to the government. However, given that a large number of daily necessities and basics of living -- most notably food and groceries -- are currently PST-exempt, but will be subjected to the HST when it comes into place, the amount of money an average consumer will spend on the bare necessities of daily living will inevitably increase by at least a whopping 7%. This impact will be felt immediately, and for the poor and less privileged, the financial stress of this additional 7% will be especially painful.

May I ask the Honourable Mr. Campbell, the Honourable Mr. Hansen, and the BC Liberal Party, how do you intend to deal with this negative impact on the poor? And how do you intend to assist them so that they will not be negatively affected by this new policy? If your intent is to simplify matters for businesses and boost their efficiency, why are you adopting a policy that will simultaneously hurt the poor? When somebody steals from the poor and less privileged, can the same person still claim to be "honourable"?!

As I was saying earlier, I am not fundamentally against the HST. I just want to know how Mr. Campbell, Mr. Hansen, and the BC Liberal Party intend to shield the poor and less privileged from the negative impact this proposal brings before pledging my support for the proposal. Perhaps the income tax basic personal amount can be increased by an additional 7%? Or perhaps the provincial government can issue HST rebates to compensate for the exta 7% that every BC resident must pay when HST comes into effect? Best of all, may I suggest that Mr. Campbell, Mr. Hansen, and every Liberal MLA lead by example and automatically subject themselves to a 7% pay cut *AND* donate a further 7% of their MLA salary to charity to help the poor when the HST comes into effect? If such measures can be taken, I will personally do everything in my power to both vote for and influence others to vote for the BC Liberals in the next election. If not, I'm afraid I cannot support a party that goes against my principles, and will do everything I can to persuade others to keep the BC Liberals out of the provincial government.

Ah Lik of Vancouver, BC

Lik

Write to Gordon Campbell, Colin Hansen, and CC copies of your letters to your MLA and Carole James to complain about sales tax changes. It's the least you can do.

Find your MLA's contact info here:
http://www.leg.bc.ca/MLA/index.htm

-Lik

Lik

http://www.vancouversun.com/busi ... /1821999/story.html

What gets taxed: PST-exempt goods and services to be subject to B.C.’s harmonized sales tax

Vancouver Sun
July 23, 2009

The following goods and services are currently exempt from provincial sales tax (PST), but will be subject to the full 12-per-cent harmonized sales tax when it is implemented next July. With the new HST, businesses will be able to recover the PST portion of the tax they currently pay, rather than passing it on to consumers as part of the price of these items. Theoretically, that should mean that prices for these goods will come down by seven per cent as they become subject to the full tax.

GOODS

• Residential fuels (electricity, natural gas) and heating.
• Basic cable TV and residential phones.
• All food products (only basic groceries will remain exempt under new tax).
• Non-prescription medication.
• Vitamins and dietary supplements.
• Bicycles.
• School supplies (books will continue to be exempt).
• Magazines and newspapers.
• Work-related safety equipment.
• Safety helmets, life jackets, first-aid kits.
• Smoke detectors and fire extinguishers.
• Energy conservation equipment (e.g., insulation, solar power equipment).

SERVICES

• Personal services such as hair care.
• Dry cleaning.
• Repair services for household appliances.
• Household maintenance such as renovations and painting.
• Real estate fees.
• Membership fees for health clubs.
• Movie and theatre tickets.
• Funeral services.
• Professional services such as accounting and home care.
• Airline fares within Canada.

Lik

The Atlantic provinces have long had HST, and it looks like Ontario and BC are doing this together now.

I am not against the principles of the HST, and I certainly see how it can simplify matters for businesses. The problem is, improvements in business efficiency cannot be had at the expense of the poor and those who are in need. That is simply not right.

In the absence of public outrage and pressure, the Liberal government will likely just let the scheme run its own natural course, meaning that the poor will suffer the heaviest blow as a result of an effective 7% sales tax increase. With enough public backlash, I suspect the Liberal government will roll out some sort of rip off scheme where tax payers will be asked to retain copies of all their sales receipts and re-claim some of this sales tax back from the provincial government when filing their annual income taxes. Naturally, this will be administrative nightmare, and the Liberal government knows that

1) a large number of people, especially the poor and under-privileged, will not bother to do this, therefore further marginalizing themselves
2) those who do keep track will likely miss out on a least a port of the receipts, meaning that the provincial government will still not need to remit a sizable portion of these tax dollars back into the pockets of BC residents

As Elan was saying, NDP is useless and the Liberals are greedy. Which of these two apples is less rotten?

-Lik

Lik

Here's the reply from the premier's office:

OfficeofthePremier, Office PREM:EX <[email protected]>         Fri, Jul 24, 2009 at 3:44 PM
To: Ah Lik <[email protected]>

Thank you for your email regarding a 12% harmonized sales tax (HST) in British Columbia.  Your concerns over any impact on the middle- and low-income family have been noted.

The harmonization of the GST with the PST will save our businesses more than $2 billion dollars as it makes them more competitive, encourages new investment and lowers administrative costs – all of which will increase economic prosperity and create more jobs in British Columbia.

The current PST is a costly and inefficient tax, almost half of which is hidden in the price of goods and services and paid by consumers.  Evidence from the Atlantic provinces shows that the hidden tax is removed very quickly with the introduction of a harmonized tax, with the majority of savings passed through to consumers in the first year.  B.C. would have the lowest HST in Canada:  all other provinces with an HST, and the one proposed by Ontario, have a rate of 13 percent.

The other good news is that the full cost of administration would be taken care of by the federal government, and with the adoption of the HST, our province would receive $1.6 billion from Ottawa to use as it sees fit.  In today’s current global economic downturn, this funding would help us to ensure that vital social services can continue to be provided.

It should also be emphasized that low-income families will receive a refund cheque four times a year to compensate for the HST, in addition to the federal GST cheques and the B.C. carbon tax credit cheques.

Since 2001, the B.C. government has taken significant steps to reduce taxes for families and improve the national and international competitiveness of our businesses.  The overall tax burden is generally the second lowest in all of Canada for B.C. families and will remain so after the introduction of the HST.

Again, thank you for taking the time to express your views and we hope this information is helpful.

Lik

A lot of government-embellished, candy-coated talk here, but at least it is good to see that low-income families will receive a refund cheque to compensate for the HST. This is a piece of information that I have never seen being reported in the various news articles I've read.

The thing is, however, how is a "low-income family" determined? And how is the amount of HST refund calculated? I'd like to find out what the calculation is based on, and while I am not really afraid of digging into government documents to find out, the process will obviously be tedious, and I will most likely not understand the account terms and methods of calculations well enough to know whether the math is reasonably fair.

-Lik

Lik

They need to learn from Hong Kong/Singapore where the lower taxes are able to attract more foreign investors.
peter236 發表於 2009-7-24 16:42

Have you even looked at the level and quality of social services that is available in Canada and in Hong Kong? Think a little before blurting out your nonsense la, ng goi~

-Lik