# Hst



## Cal (Jun 17, 2009)

I am starting to think that the HST is going to be a bigger hit on the wallet than I had originally anticipated.

Have received notices that my internet services will go from 5% tax to 13% as of July first. Same for health food. And these are just the notices that I received today.

Add to that rising rates.....equals alot of Kraft dinner!


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## dogcom (May 23, 2009)

I live in BC and that cheating Liberal government lied to everyone that they would not bring in the HST two weeks before the election. They will pay big time for this horrible tax as we all sign petitions against this.


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## Mockingbird (Apr 29, 2009)

dogcom said:


> I live in BC and that cheating Liberal government lied to everyone that they would not bring in the HST two weeks before the election. They will pay big time for this horrible tax as we all sign petitions against this.


Thanks for reminding me to sign that petition.


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## the-royal-mail (Dec 11, 2009)

Ontario got exactly what it deserved. Remember McGuinty's 2003 election pledge not to raise taxes? Within weeks he had increased taxes by about $600-700 a year. Oh sorry, he called it a health care premium. A couple of years later, those MPP's were nice enough to vote themselves a 28% raise. In 2007, the voters had the chance to boot his a-s out for his blatant lies and what do they do? Give him another majority gov't.

Good going, Ontario. Enjoy your parade of new taxes. It's what you voted for.


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## Ihatetaxes (May 5, 2010)

the-royal-mail said:


> Ontario got exactly what it deserved. Remember McGuinty's 2003 election pledge not to raise taxes? Within weeks he had increased taxes by about $600-700 a year. Oh sorry, he called it a health care premium. A couple of years later, those MPP's were nice enough to vote themselves a 28% raise. In 2007, the voters had the chance to boot his a-s out for his blatant lies and what do they do? Give him another majority gov't.
> 
> Good going, Ontario. Enjoy your parade of new taxes. It's what you voted for.


I didn't vote for him so can I get an HST exemption please?


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## redwoodave (Apr 14, 2010)

I think the McGuinty govt deserves kudos for making politically difficult decisions in the best interests of our provinces financial health.


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## OhGreatGuru (May 24, 2009)

redwoodave said:


> I think the McGuinty govt deserves kudos for making politically difficult decisions in the best interests of our provinces financial health.


It's a bitter pill to swallow, but I agree. We have to pay for government services somehow - look where perpetual deficit financing has landed Greece and half the other countries in the EU. (I would have appreciated more honesty from the McGuinty govt., but who would get elected on a platform of "Vote for me - I will raise your taxes"?)


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## Toronto.gal (Jan 8, 2010)

the-royal-mail said:


> Good going, Ontario. Enjoy your parade of new taxes. It's what you voted for.


I'm definitely not a Liberal (well, sometimes!). 

And how about David Miller's $60 Personal Vehicle Tax he hit us with 2 years ago and essentially doubling the cost of renewing a licence plate sticker from $74 ($75 if a kiosk is used) to $134!


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## the-royal-mail (Dec 11, 2009)

redwoodave said:


> I think the McGuinty govt deserves kudos for making politically difficult decisions in the best interests of our provinces financial health.


LMAO - glad to see humour is alive and well here at CMF. Thanks for the laugh. I needed that.


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## Dr_V (Oct 27, 2009)

I don't normally delve into political discussions, but here's my take:




I think that the HST had to be done ... It will save the federal government money (by reducing the overhead involved with collecting the GST), and this is fine by me. Hopefully some of this money will be returned to provinces and will ultimately benefit us all.



The HST is a confusing tax. It affects almost everything but there are strange exemptions for "qualifying" foods, drugs, childcare, etc. WTF?



I would rather that they had simply taxed everything the same *BUT *lowered the overall tax to X% where X% was determined (statistically) so that it "evened out" to the same overall impact (as the GST+PST) for typical families in the province. Maybe this would mean that X was 10%. Whatever, I'd be fine with that.
I'm fine paying more on my groceries if it means that I pay less on my <whatever else>. It would have all been the same in the end.
Plus, when everything is taxed the same, to me, it feels truly harmonized and easy-to-compute. No surprises.
Alas, that's not what we're getting ...


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## CuriousReader (Apr 3, 2009)

redwoodave said:


> I think the McGuinty govt deserves kudos for making politically difficult decisions in the best interests of our provinces financial health.


Lots of things have been under-funded ... of course the govt needs more money to support the public services. 

Somebody have to pay for all the services the govt provide!
- St. Clair and then Bloor project that run years late and costs a lot more than estimated
- paying public union workers 6-digit salary to sit in an airconditioned room the whole day
- letting the MPs to have various pet projects with the only intention of making themselves popular and get re-voted
- eHealth ... woohoo !


I am sure there are much more expenses that we need to pay for because we've been lucky to be getting such a good public service that worth our money.


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## Ihatetaxes (May 5, 2010)

Dr_V said:


> I don't normally delve into political discussions, but here's my take:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Great idea!!


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## dogcom (May 23, 2009)

Your welcome Mockingbird and I am glad you are signing the petition.

I think it is important as voters that we punish parties or politicians who outright lie to us.

This is the biggest reason in BC why we hate the HST. The other tax that really bugs me is the carbon tax on gas that goes to nothing and many Canadians think it is a great idea. The Liberals in BC brought the carbon tax in and then later on cut the grants to home owners that insulated their houses or got a fuel efficient furnace and so on.


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## HaroldCrump (Jun 10, 2009)

OhGreatGuru said:


> It's a bitter pill to swallow, but I agree. We have to pay for government services somehow


I find it ironical that the HST comes along soon after the historical multi-million dollar bailouts for the auto sector, pension plans, substantial increases in public sector pay, giving in to union strickes (TTC, garbage workers, nurses, teachers, etc.)
I think regular ontario residents are paying for more than just public services - they are paying for the govt. political agenda and protection racket as well.


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## dilbert789 (Apr 20, 2010)

To top it off, now the mp's won't open their books to show Sheila Fraser their expense accounts, saying it's 'not in her mandate'. 

I'm totally fine with paying the true cost for the services that we need. I hate the concept of subsidy's for different industry's as it reduces competition (look at corn in the US especially). The problem I have is that these guys are making big bucks to start with then have like $280,000 a year to spend on expenses and their offices and expect to have no oversight on what it is spent on.


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## HaroldCrump (Jun 10, 2009)

And didn't the Ontario MPs give themselves over 25% pay raises for 3 years running since 2006?


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## the-royal-mail (Dec 11, 2009)

HaroldCrump said:


> And didn't the Ontario MPs give themselves over 25% pay raises for 3 years running since 2006?


Correct. They also raised the price of personalized and graphic license plates from their already-exhorbitant costs to even more outrageous costs.

Their whole platform in 2003 had to do with lambasting Ernie Eves for a deficit, yet McGuinty has done no better. One of the poorest leaders I've ever seen.

They were also raising a stink against the Conservatives back in 1999 when gas jumped to 66 cents a litre, yet they have done nothing to reduce gas prices since they've been in power. In fact, the HST will increase gas prices.

And again, the health care premium tax increase they inflicted on voters in 2003, after campaigning not to raise taxes. To date, none of that money has gone to improving schools and hospitals, like he said they desperately needed in his 2003 campaign.


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## dogcom (May 23, 2009)

Just so you guys know BC is really on the way to screwing over Gordon Campbell. I talked to one of the HST volunteers and he said we only need 15 more ridings reaching 10% of voters and we expect to have 15% of all ridings signed up in the end. He also said Gordon is writing the legislation now to dump the HST in the ditch if he has to. I also heard that 500,000 BC voters have signed on so if we win in BC, Canada take note we can fight these idiots if we have to.


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## Bullseye (Apr 5, 2009)

The CGA association wrote a good paper on the HST, stating that in the Maritimes, after the HST was implemented, prices on most goods and services did come down. I know with my own business, we'll be saving a lot of money when HST comes in, as we get to claim ITC's for things we never were able to before. In the highly competitive market we're in, businesses will pass those savings on to consumers to get an edge, and their competitors will have to follow suit.

Needless to say, I'm a big supporter of the HST. Most opposition to it seems knee-jerk to me.


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## dilbert789 (Apr 20, 2010)

Here's a good article on examples of what will really change, note that it's from the government of Ontario website:

http://www.rev.gov.on.ca/en/taxchange/pdf/taxable.pdf


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## OhGreatGuru (May 24, 2009)

Just received the first instalment of my $1K HST taxpayer bribe (sorry - Ontario Sales Tax Transition Benefit). For those who can afford it, I would urge you to use it to make a donation to one of the charities or NGO's whose grants have been cut off by Harper for idealogical reasons, or by McGuinty for fiscal reasons.


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## cardhu (May 26, 2009)

I find it amusing how we so often see the phrase “ideological reasons” inserted into such discussions, as if that is a “bad” thing ... don’t these folks realize that if it were not for ideological reasons, the funding that got cut would never have existed in the first place?


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## houska (Feb 6, 2010)

It seems I'm in the minority, but I'm an Ontarian who does not oppose the HST.

I support simplification of the tax regime (which harmonization will do). 

For better or worse, our governments want and/or need more money for government coffers. Given we have quite high personal income tax rates already, I also support that additional taxes be levied on consumption (with a compensating benefit to low income earners) so as to incentivize saving and investing over spending. 

I'm not opposed to raising extra revenue by increasing fees for luxuries, like the vanity license plate issue someone brought up above. 

I'm all for thoughtfully cutting government costs. I would not start with MPP salaries though; all of the people I can think of right now in the private sector that I would love to see in politics make more than the current MPP salary. Several make 2x or more the Ontario cabinet minister salary.


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## MoneyGal (Apr 24, 2009)

I'm in the minority with you, H.


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## the-royal-mail (Dec 11, 2009)

Thank you, cardhu. Glad someone can see past the political rhetoric. The reason taxes are out of control and governments are in deficit largely has to do with how many of these lobby groups are at the trough every day in this country. Our tax rates are excessive and when MPPs give themselves 28% pay raises you quickly realize that newly-invented taxes are barely keeping pace with all this corruption.

Left-wing ideaology has governed this country for way too long. Time for the pendulum to swing back the other way.


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## cardhu (May 26, 2009)

You can put me in that camp too ... I have no problem with HST ... it'll be good for me, actually.

However, I discovered something today that I am surprised at ... I had assumed that PST would no longer exist after HST is introduced ... seems that's not the case ... insurance premiums are GST-exempt, and therefore by definition are also HST exempt ... but McGuinty, in his infinite wisdom, has decided that PST and HST can run side-by-side ... insurance premiums will continue to be subject to the old 8% PST.


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## RetireIn10Years (Apr 4, 2009)

The HST here in BC will add to my cost of living so I don't like it. 
I'm am completely again government running a deficit. 
What needs to happen is cuts, cuts, and more cuts. There is so much unnecessary crap that some lobby groups managed to get. It needs to be boiled down to the basic essential services.

I also hope those that are signing the petition understand it won't make a difference, the HST cannot be stopped. It can be reconsidered in 5 years.
As far as punishment goes, there is no alternative. What will you do - vote for the NDP? Now there is a tax and spend policy. Unless you're a public union worker, you will pay even more tax and be worse off. 

It's a very helpless feeling sadly.


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