Makes the HST worth it for us
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Updated: September 22, 2009 2:21 PM
Editor:
I am not in favor of combining the provincial and federal sales taxes into the HST if it will be a zero sum game, and neither should any Canadian.
In 1993 – after two years of GST – the cost of administration/collection was reported as 3.6 cents per dollar collected.
I can find neither equivalent numbers for PST, nor more recent federal data.
Let’s assume that combining the two taxes will remove one entire set of administrative/collection costs. That benefit should pass on to the taxpayer.
We should demand an HST that is lower than the PST-plus-GST total of 12 per cent.
Even a half-point reduction to 11.5 per cent would be a step in the right direction.
However, we should challenge our governments to design a better tax system and hold out for an even better deal.
Ten per cent would have the advantage of making the mental math manageable for the rest of us, and making the message for greater simplification of the tax system crystal clear to both governments.
Lewis N. Villegas, White Rock
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