When the PST rears its ugly head on April 1, 2013, British Columbias tax competitiveness will be dealt a major blow as the cost of the investing in the province increases dramatically. Unfortunately, the well-being of BC families will be negatively affected in many ways none more important than the adverse impact the PST will have on investment in machinery, equipment, and technology the backbone of a healthy economy.
HST
August 30, 2011
2:00AM
With Labour Day just around the corner and British Columbia's unemployment rate at 7.3 per cent, Premier Christy Clark's promise of a jobs agenda is welcome news. Unfortunately, her actions haven't backed up her words.
August 26, 2011
2:00AM
With the defeat of the harmonized sales tax (HST), B.C.s competitiveness will suffer a crushing blow, as the province experiences a rebirth of the provincial sales tax (PST). The unfortunate reality is that restoring the PST will lead to a reduction in investment and job creation. It now falls on Premier Christy Clark and her colleagues to show leadership and put forth a tax plan to mitigate the unrealized economic gains that the HST would have encouraged.
July 20, 2011
2:00AM
After two years of heated debate, many British Columbians are still confused about how to vote in the current mail-in referendum on the HST. The choice before them is to either keep the HSTwhich the government has promised to reduce to 10 per cent from 12 per centor restore the old PST/GST system at a total rate of 12 per cent.
To help British Columbians decide, we have calculated the impact of restoring the PST/GST on the tax bill of BC families (with two or more individuals) at various income levels using the Fraser Institutes Canadian Tax Simulator.
To help British Columbians decide, we have calculated the impact of restoring the PST/GST on the tax bill of BC families (with two or more individuals) at various income levels using the Fraser Institutes Canadian Tax Simulator.
June 3, 2011
2:00AM
Happy Tax Freedom Day! Monday, British Columbians start working for themselves. In other words, if we had to pay all our taxes up front, we would have to pay each and every dollar we earned from January 1 to June 5 to various levels of government.
This of course, translates into an awful lot of money. In fact, the average British Columbian family with two or more individuals will hand-over about $36,600 in taxes to their federal, provincial and local governments (42.7% of their income).
June 22, 2010
2:00AM
On July 1st, BC and Ontario will merge their provincial sales tax (PST) with the federal Goods and Services Tax (GST) creating a single harmonized sales tax (HST) 12 per cent in BC and 13 per cent in Ontario. Unfortunately, the prospect of harmonization has been met with much public discontent due to misinformation being spread by those who oppose the reform and want to derail it. Canadians mustnt believe the anti-HST hype. The economic case for the HST is ironclad.
December 22, 2009
6:00PM
Earlier this week, Finance Minister Rosann Wowchuk kyboshed a Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) for Manitoba. Her reasoning: We don't think it makes sense to impose $405 million in new sales taxes. While such rhetoric might be good politics, it is terrible economics and worse, actually misrepresents the facts.