JimV8

The HST from the small business point of view. It is an improvement over the GST and RST, where we have to deal with two government agencies. The RST (PST) is a mishmash of sometimes we charge it, sometimes we don't, as in if it is a part of real property, in the latter is becomes an input cost which is then included in the markup. So in that case the cost of the goods and the HST combined will be lower than the current method where the PST is hidden in the cost structure.

As far as I can tell importing a car will be a wash.

Christien

Here's the kicker for small business that many people don't know about: we get to keep 5% of PST collections. It's not much, I get maybe $75 a month from it, but still, it's compensation for time spent acting as the gov't agent as tax collector, their way of saying thanks for doing this for us. Not so with GST, and that will disappear with HST. Thanks, Dalton.

Torontoworker

Correct, except it will be done at the border. If you don't register the car - you've given them the PST part for free is Ontario's take.

There is no ORST after July 1st and without the ability to split off the provinces split they will have to charge the HST on private sales. This by the way was a done deal way back in the summer as the new car auto dealers assoc have been spending a lot of time and money at Ottawa to lobby for this. It gave McSquirelly the perfect out - he pleases the new car dealers and when the public begin to freak out about the added GST on resales he points his finger at Harper. Meanwhile the Federal finance minister creams his pants over the extra stolen income from us all... Resale dealers have no pull or anywhere near the same amount of cash as the manufactures.

When you go to import a car into Ontario, you'll pay the HST rate and they will give you a payment slip to present when your ready to register the car. Oh, and the plate sticker is now subject to HST ontop of the plate fee...

http://www.wheels.ca/article/783918

It's going to be interesting on trade in value of cars as well - you'll now have to pay HST on a trade for a new car or lease as well as lease 'buy backs' such as sites like leasebusters.

So buy that used P Car, (non-dealer-inside Ontario that is).... now if your going to consider one. It's an extra $1500 on a $30K private sale after July 1st.

Should be fun importing a race car as you used to pay only 5% GST and never ended up at MTO to pay the 8%ORST. Now it looks as if they won't care about the off road groups, either ATV's race cars etc. - you'll pay the full %13HST and be happy damn it!!

canuck964

Not the place for a GST/HST lesson but you've hit upon one of my pet peeves about GST and now HST.

There are basically three sales positions that a GST registrant is in (they could be subject to all three) 1. taxable - must collect GST and gets 100% of the GST paid as input tax credits; 2. zero rated - collects GST at zero rate and gets 100% of the GST paid as input tax credits; 3. exempt - does not collect GST but also does not get GST paid as input tax credits (most medical procedures and residential rentals fall within this definition).

My pet peeve is this. The government made a point that they did not want to pass the GST onto medical services and residential rentals as this would unfairly impact the poor. So they made those services exempt and forced the medical professional and condo owners to eat the GST as they could not claim them as input tax credits. This really did not eliminate the GST on those services as while they were not able to charged GST, eventually the medical professional and condo owners would raise their fees or rents to get back the added cost of the GST.

The government should have just had two positions - taxable and zero rated. In that case GST could have been charged at zero rate and full input tax credits be given back.

So now with the HST it becomes a 12% BC and 13% Ontario problem instead of a 5% problem and the HST is charged on a wider range of services.

Obviously the government managed to slip a fast one passed the medical professionals and property owners back in 1990 and they continue to take it up the *** today.

The one thing that I have noticed about the Department of Finance is that they are very vendictive and they will target certain groups of taxpayers. In this case they have been very successful.

To answer 1990964C4's question - just think of the HST as the same as GST except it is at 13% instead of 5%. Everything that you've done so far for GST will be essentially the same for HST except for the %.

orangem

not very familiar with finances, but all I know(according to my accountant) is my wife's clinic rent will go up by the increase to HST and cannot claim back due to offering non-taxable services to patients. Pretty screwy I would say.