douglas

Effective July 1, 2010, British Columbia will follow Ontario by combining their provincial and federal taxes into a harmonized tax rate of 12%. The Government of British Columbia believes that “…the Harmonized Sales Tax is the single most important step British Columbia can take to boost its economy.” This move is proposed to save employers nearly $2 billion while increasing costs for consumers on basic items such as restaurant meals, vitamins and dietary supplements, real estate fees, magazines and newspapers.

Do you agree with the Government of British Columbia's sentiment? And as an individual who is active in the Greater Victoria business community and also a consumer, how will the Harmonized Sales Tax [HST] effect you and what measures are you planning on taking to prepare for the changes?

Just scanning the TC, there is an article on the implementation of full day Kindergarten in the province and the article has a passing mention that money gathered from the HST is going to be used to implement the new Kindergarten classes over the next two years... So is there a comprehensive list of what all the saved revenue that the HST is being spent on yet? Or is the HST going to be used as a vague piggy-bank whenever money needs to be discovered for programs and shortfalls?
Here is the article I am referring to...

also check out a couple of ways you might mitigate the impact of the HST on yourself or your business here.

finally, no matter where you sit on HST or the government, you gotta admit, those are the last two chairs in BC I would like to be sitting in these days. Let's just say I hope they have back-up plans in place when the next provincial election comes up...