Citizens will lose touch with taxes
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My concern about the current harmonization of GST and PST is that it absolves both governments of responsibility for the taxes they collect.
The next step will be to withdraw the penny from circulation, followed shortly after by a shift by merchants to rounded-up, tax-included prices.
Fifteen years ago, while on a year-long exchange to Tasmania, I noticed that shop prices were quoted in even numbers, and there was no mention of taxes anywhere. I commented to the young clerk how nice it was not to have sales taxes to pay.
She thought the combined state and federal taxes were around 30 per cent, but they were included in the even number price to simplify change-making at the time of sale.
The final step is that citizens will lose touch with the taxes they are paying and will only be able to respond with vague generalizations when questioned.
Ken Allison
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