Taxes.. gripe

A forum for discussing world news, ideas, concepts and possibly controversial topics including religion and politics. WARNING: may contain strong opinions or strong language. This does not mean anything goes though!
Forum rules
Please read the Forum rules and policies before posting.
Post Reply
User avatar
cowsmanaut
Moo Master
Posts: 4378
Joined: Fri Jun 30, 2000 12:53 am
Location: canada

Taxes.. gripe

Post by cowsmanaut »

Not that 90% of you will care about the new tax method being applied in BC, but I know there are some Canadians on her that it does affect.. I'm just going to rant a moment with some interesting elements that are not clearly exposed about the new system.

What they are doing is taking the two taxes we have GST 7% and PST 5% and making a new tax called the harmonized sales tax, HST. HST is simply 12%, which at first glance is no different than before. Except that they are making other changes under the hood. Some good to try and "offset" the bad. GST was a tax which did not apply to all things. For example food items unless candy, were exempt. That included going to eat out at your local pub or whatever.. There were other life required items which were also exempt from those taxes and they made a very complicated line around what was required and what was not.. but it was there. With HST, they are redefining those lines. Now going out to eat, you pay 5% tax, with HST you will now pay 12%. it's rather large increase. Defining that which get's the 12% tax is going to lead to some confusion as well , as it's not going to be posted in your local grocer either. You're going to have to guess based of the basic information they have given.. ie if it's a snack food or savory food. So they stated that items with flavoring.. perhaps sauces are savory and subject to the tax.. if it is made of corn, potato, rice, wheat and is baked or fried, then it may also fall into that category unless it's a breakfast cereal. Such loose determinations mean that you could perhaps see a drumstick with bbq sauce on it and pay HST vs the one without the sauce and pay no tax on it. For that is the "good" side of things.. those things previously subject to just pst, now are tax free.

Now their statement is that this should increase business growth and allow for new jobs and jump start the economy. However, when I look at a restaurant and it's owner. especially one who is not a chain. Rather a small family owned one. What you see is with this new set of taxes. They will have to pay less for veggies, but more for sauces. Often those larger places can make everything themselves but the smaller ones have to make some shortcuts. So, the deal is, according to government, they are to pass their "savings" on to us. However, without doing extensive planning on what now costs them more and less and what the differences are on that they can not determine their new pricing. Not only that but they need to put the expense into updating websites if they have any, or at least the reprinting of the menu. If they do this, they still end up costing more due to the tax.. and if they opt to not spend the time and extra costs leaving their prices as they always were.. then we pay even more due to the new tax. though in the end they may make more profit. The down side to that though, is what they are all worried about and that's the sudden jump in the cost of dining will lead to other losses. Customers who find it now more expensive than they want to pay for food and so no longer come, or those who feel that leaving a tip is no longer justified. The problem with tips, is that it's been made a part of your servers sallary.. I seem to recall this being a big issue as many businesses had their servers sallary dropped to assume a specific amount of tips. So, if people stop giving tips.. that server no longer is able to make ends meet. As you can see, all of this leads to a lot of problems. In fact rather than boosting economy, it's looking a lot more that people will need to change or lose their jobs, and that some businesses will need to close down.. that other smaller ones planning to start will not be able to do so.. I don't get how it's supposed to help?? So far no one has shown me how it's going to be of benefit to us.

In fact the only ones supposedly gaining benefit over this new change is the government and specific business. They named Oil, manufacture, and construction in this.. large business companies who do not need such a handout from the governement. As for passing on the savings to the consumers, it's highly unlikely that they will.. and even if they do.. as pointed out above.. we still pay more than we used to anyway... except in a few cases.. but those few seem to be outweighed by the many not so good cases.. :S

anyway, that's the essence of the gripe.. and what's more is that these kind of changes that our governments make are not up for a vote.. they just do it. Then they lie about it claiming it's better for us..

perhaps some of you have similar stories or gripes about tax changes? I know other laws have come up in other treads before.. so that's why I'm throwing this one out there. :P
User avatar
beowuuf
Archmastiff
Posts: 20687
Joined: Sat Sep 16, 2000 2:00 pm
Location: Basingstoke, UK

Re: Taxes.. gripe

Post by beowuuf »

Visitors to the country could claim back the GST if I recall correctly... is that no longer the case?
Was unable to (permenantly) kill off ian_scho (Haynuus), Ameena, oh_brother (Westian), money (Falkor), raixel (Petal) and Lord_Bones (Aurek) in the DM D&D game Time's Champions!

CONGRATULATIONS TO THOSE WHO MADE THE GAME WHAT IT WAS - GREAT!
User avatar
cowsmanaut
Moo Master
Posts: 4378
Joined: Fri Jun 30, 2000 12:53 am
Location: canada

Re: Taxes.. gripe

Post by cowsmanaut »

many are worried that this will decrease tourism here. Leading to less money from foreign sources. so I'm thinking maybe no :S Though Sandie says it's still lower taxes than in France .. so I should shut up :P
User avatar
ian_scho
High Lord
Posts: 2806
Joined: Fri Apr 07, 2006 8:30 am
Location: Zaragoza, Spain

Re: Taxes.. gripe

Post by ian_scho »

The tax rate in France is atypical... Almost bonkers :P If you hire someone you end up paying 50% of the wages in taxes :?:
They had a maximum 35 hour working week until recently, I believe.
User avatar
cowsmanaut
Moo Master
Posts: 4378
Joined: Fri Jun 30, 2000 12:53 am
Location: canada

Re: Taxes.. gripe

Post by cowsmanaut »

for ours I think it's normal to have a 40hr working week. Though many do more.
Post Reply