YAY/NAY: Harmonized Sales Tax (HST)

Since time began man has disagreed over … things. The  latest YAY/NAY examines the HST.

YAY

Colin Fraser
[contributor]

Bill Vander Zalm has one thing right. British Columbians should not waste the unique opportunity to decide on an issue of tax policy.

This is a time to get informed, and be pragmatic. The upcoming referendum is not an opportunity to pass judgment on our despised, former premier. It is on tax policy, and the decision should hinge exclusively on which tax is better for B.C. HST is simply the better system.

Every study that has been conducted shows that low-income families are burdened less heavily by HST relative to PST thanks to the $230 HST credit.

This is a huge step towards an equitable taxation system that helps out the poor. BC businesses (yes, even restaurants and barber shops) will save millions of dollars in operating and compliance costs, which will foster innovation and capital accumulation and job creation — all things that will improve the quality of life of British Columbians.

If it becomes easier to start a successful business in B.C. and easier for established businesses to hire British Columbians, a small tax increase (less than $1 a day if you make around $67,000 a year) is a small price to pay.

The PST was complex, cascading and distortionary — qualities that are universally judged by economists to be exactly what you don’t want in a tax.

A short blurb in the school newspaper is not enough to clearly show why HST is a superior system, so I encourage you to go online and get informed. We are students. We know how to filter the political rhetoric from unbiased academic
research.

Please, treat this vote as seriously as you would a research assignment. I am sure that you’ll discover on your own that reverting back to an inefficient mode of taxation would be a tremendous mistake for the province.
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NAY

Matt Law
[media editor]

Since the HST was introduced on July 1, 2010 residents of British Columbia have been paying more.

Many items and services that were previously exempt from the seven per cent Provincial Sales Tax are now being charged a full 12 per cent under the HST.

Something as simple, and basic, as your residential phone bill is now subject to an additional seven percent tax. For simplicity’s sake, on your $50 monthly phone bill you were paying $2.5 in tax. Under the HST you have been paying $6 tax. That might not seem like much but over the course of a year that adds up to $72, which is $42 more than you would have paid under the GST/PST system. And sure a $42 difference isn’t that much either, but if you add up all the goods and services that you are now paying more tax on, students will be struggling even more to pay for tuition come September.

The Liberals and Christy Clark have made all kinds of promises to lower the tax to 10 per cent by 2014, but the Liberals also promised there would be no HST not so long ago – so can we really trust them?

The Liberals introduced the quarterly B.C. HST Credit that will equal $230 (maximum) annually for eligible people.

But since you are already paying an extra $42 on your yearly phone bill it won’t take long to add up all your other purchases that the HST now applies to that will far exceed $230.

To vote to extinguish the HST is also a chance to remind politicians that they need to listen to the people.

Some claim that we need to separate politics from a sound economic decision, but when politicians have become so arrogant that they feel entitled to fly their family across the country repeatedly, on the taxpayers back, they have lost touch.

Our government officials need to be held accountable and have to be reminded that they represent us to Ottawa and not the other way around.