» Who’s Afraid of the HST?
The Left seems to be teaming with the less-government-lower-taxes Right in running an anti-HST campaign, somewhat incongruously. How can the government intervene as a force for good without tax revenues?
I’ve been reading enough about the new tax, and discussed it enough with my high-placed contacts, that I’m somewhat incredulous towards anti-HST claims. First, and most important to me, taxes are going up on investment products in order to punish the Financial Services Industry for being anti-consumer.
Second, the tax avoids being regressive. Exempt goods include, as far as I can tell, all of the necessities. Are there any I’m missing?
Third, the HST is good for biznatch because it provides ITCs — input tax credits — which are super-awesome for starting a small business (and mirror how the GST works). But the government’s 2×4 production infografic sez it best:
The real question is whether the supply chain will just pocket the tax decrease or if market competition will actually drive prices lower. For things like bespoke software development this might* allow tax collected on sales to be used to offset taxes paid on development hardware.
Fourth, taxes will go up, but probably not as much as opponents like the Financial Services Industry would like you to believe. The government sez it’ll create jobs, but actually doesn’t know — that’s just their best guess and they’re starting with a deficit after gutting the bureaucracy at the Provincial Ministry of Plenty Finance.
Fifth, last, the opposition to the tax wants to get enough signatures for a plebiscite to bar its adoption. As we all know from PoliSci 101 these initiatives are almost guaranteed to fail in BC — 10% of the voting-eligible population in each of our 85 districts need to sign the petition for that to happen, and some of our Northern, interior districts are still so sparsely populated and difficult-to-canvass that plebiscites are a practical impossibility.
Unless there’s some way to validly collect signatures online? Anyone know? Remember: You can’t use Canada Post — they’ll steal the petitions.
* Check this with your Chartered Accountant, please.
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