HST is scrapped !

[gallows]

The 5 ridings most in favour of scrapping the HST:

Surrey–Green Timbers, 75.51 per cent voted to scrap the HST.
Vancouver–Kingsway, 72.45 voted to scrap the HST.
Surrey–Newton, 72.22 per cent voted to scrap the HST.
Vancouver–Kensington, 69.48 per cent voted to scrap the HST.
Surrey–Whalley, 68.88 per cent voted to scrap the HST.


The 5 ridings most in favour of keeping the HST:

West Vancouver–Capilano, 64.52 per cent voted to keep the HST.
Vancouver–Quilchena, 62.4 per cent voted to keep the HST.
Vancouver–Sea to Sky, 60.78 per cent voted to keep the HST.
North Vancouver–Seymour, per cent 60.59 voted to keep the HST.
Vancouver-Point Grey, 58.11 per cent voted to keep the HST.

Why doesn't this surprise me?

The rich, big business and the fat cats (and perhaps those who can afford and run $50,000 boats) will benefit from HST. Everyone else and the poor won't!

Where I live a local wealthy politician wrote to the paper urging readers to vote to keep the HST. He happens to own the largest accounting business in town. Well, he would be in favour of it wouldn't he? What a damn cheek!

Maybe the HST would have simplified our BC tax system but all I know is: I was paying more tax under HST and it affected my small business in a nagative way (hospitality industry).

 

[Bantam_50]

scrapping the HST is like hitting yourself in the head with a hammer and wondering why it hurt, then doing it again and still wondering, DUH!holmes*

LOL ... no it's being democratic holmesy.

 

[Bantam_50]

yes i realize that Bantam, i think they should try again, meaning they should try and re-introduce it, BUT, there are some things that shoud be completely tax free, like bikes, healthy food, anything that promotes being active and healthy living, cause in the long run it's going to save money and tax dollars, tax the hell out of junk food, processed food, anything that is unhealthy cause eventually if ppl arent healthy or they dont live in a healthy environment, well, they become a draw on society rather than a contributer, is it not just common sense that u shouldnt penalize ppl for trying to make things better and live better, dont get me wrong, i dont like the way it was introduced either, but ppl in general need to cut down on their mass consuming, the more you consume, the more ya pay, i dunno, maybe i'm crazy but it makes sense to me........

now this is funny......holmes*

I imagine it's in the works and then they'll get the right public response. Funny what respect and integrity will gather you.

 

[Bag-Juan]

Unbelievable mess this province is in now! Look what those liberal's created! Any body gonna buy a new house in the next eighteen month's ? I heard the teacher's may not show up for school. Apperantly sea lions have better health care than we do!! Any-body seen '' gordo '' lately -- what a freek'n joke!! Down the toilet we go -- I'm gonna send gordo a e-mail and thank him for doing an outstanding job for us, as we all shoud! I guess he's having a good laugh with the Queen all naked rolling around in his money pissed out of his mind $

 

[wolf]

YEP thanks liberal Gov man this is going to make our province go down into the shiater even more..... THANKS GORDO!!!!
Saw on the news last night this guy who makes softwear which employs 5 people that hes looking to go out of province WOW 5 people, what a dork...
This is going to hurt us more later down the road and I can just hear the campaigns now and when a new government takes over they will blame the liberals for making such a mess its the same pile of crap just a different year, I didnt like it at all in the beggining as I dont think a "dictator" style tax was good he didnt care at all what the people wanted and thats why it got voted out..

 

[peetz]

x2 Bag Juan x2

 

[Little Hawk]

Because your supplies will cost you 7% more. Meaning you will make less money for the same job compared to what you would've made with HST.

I'm a contractor too. The more taxable supplies you use the more PST will cost you to run your business.

For me Trend, my supplies - besides actual building materials - amount to an occasional saw blade (or getting them sharpened); other incidentals like sandpaper, grinding discs, screws etc., get factored into the cost of each job, which the client pays for along with my labour and if all goes according to plan, a small profit for my business to try to stay on top of things like tool depreciation or when my truck breaks down or my chop-saw calves.

 

[fishnwhenIcan]

My opinion is the Government is responsible for this mess things were working fine, not saying it couldn’t be improved but now we’ll be paying for something they broke.

The HST was not brought in to benefit the shrinking middle class, just the opposite, but to benefit in the large part the big multi national corprorations the lobby groups represent. Sure small business gets some benfit from it but that’s just so we can be used to fight their fight for them. Throw us a bone from the steak they’re eating, shut the dog up for a while, throw some rebate cheques towards the poor because they really care.

The Government misled us about implementing it during the election but I bet they were surprised they were called on it. Afterall that’s par for the course.They tried to swing the outcome of the referendum with more misleading statements of having to pay back 1.6 Billion, doom and gloom and now they have to keep misleading us. How can they stop now? Fear keeps us inline.

I wonder how much we paid for the stick man adds and such so they could tell us what was good for us. Mind you, I really was starting to believe they were going to drop it to 10% in a while “trust us” not.

I get a little tired of hearing the phrase “good for the economy” trotted out everytime they want to force something down our throats. It would be “good for the economy” if we worked for Chinese equilavent wages and they are working on that. Imagine the double figure growth in GDP, I can’t wait!

I’m sure this could hurt a bit in the transition period but why are they taking so long to do it? I’m thinking they want to slap us back down so we’ll accept some other thing they are going to trot out that’s “good for the economy” and will accomplish the same thing. Oh well at least we won’t have to pay for a fall election.

Meanwhile, they have us fighting country by country, region by region, city by city and against one another for the ever decreasing scraps they are prepared to leave us. They leave a little less and less on the bone and we supply them with incentives and tax breaks begging for those scraps and jobs, while they’re stealing our resources. Divide and conquer and it’s working quite well.

The Governments need to be accountable to the people that voted them in not to the lobbyist groups they represent now. I don’t know how that get’s accomplished short of no political parties, all independents and an efficient and speedy recall mechanism so they are representing the people that are paying their salaries and unreal pensions, not the company’s board of governors they end up serving on once they leave office.

Any word on whether any of the Norwegian fish farms are going to pack up and leave over this? Sure hope not we’d all starve.
The transfer of wealth from the middle class just continues. But hey “it’s good for the economy”.

Sorry for the long Rant! I gotta go clean my boat or something. I'll edit some out later!

 

[Bag-Juan]

Yeah, good rant fishwhenIcan, to bad we won't have to pay for a fall election. Who knows where we will end up if the clown show continues. Somebody please stop the bleeding!!

 

[Time]

My quick take?
HST transferred approximately 2 billion in taxes from industry, most of which are export oriented, to local taxpayers.
A more "efficient" and "competitive" economy, in Gordo's words, in that exporters would be able to reduce their costs, and presumably their sales prices, while the slack in tax revenue would be sucked up by the generous citizens who shared his vision.
And, surprise, the HST was not revenue neutral, generating an estimated 800 million increase in tax revenue received by the provincial treasury.
So an extra 2.8 billion in sales (consumer) taxes borne by the citizenry. (Thats an average of about 7-750.00 per person.)
No wonder it was defeated.

And it won't take 3 years to unravel. Maybe a year.
Clark wants an election before then, and won't want to go to the polls with this albatross hanging over her head.

 

[cletus]

Well put FishnwhenIcan.

 

[scott craven]

While i am sympathetic to low income families, Our middle income family of 4 has never seen either a Gst or Hst rebate or credit.
I can't help but think that families such as ours fund all of these rebates while receiving nothing in return.

 

[gallows]

The Liberals were very quick to introduce the HST. In fact they couldn't introduce it fast enough. It's now going to take them at least 18 months to revert back! Funny that!!!

 

[Tips Up]

The Liberals were very quick to introduce the HST. In fact they couldn't introduce it fast enough. It's now going to take them at least 18 months to revert back! Funny that!!!

Nothing funny about it. BC Liberals are control freaks. They seem to do what they like and most of the time get away with it.

While i am sympathetic to low income families, Our middle income family of 4 has never seen either a Gst or Hst rebate or credit.
I can't help but think that families such as ours fund all of these rebates while receiving nothing in return

Hear you there Craven. My middle income family of 4 is stuck in the middle also. I see no benefits from HST for my family. Glad to see it go. I could get along just fine without the Liberals also. They want all my money in taxes and when they need more they will just sell and privatize my BC resources.

Tips

 

[Tips Up]

Start the campaign!

holms for Premier!!!

 

[Kisinana]

Jackal
You show us a perfect example of why people hated the HST as introduced. You list buying a new truck every 4 years and with HST got the tax back. Someone else has to pay that tax and it is the middle income earner who works for someone else and does not have access to such rebates. All your new gear someone else pays that tax as well. We need a system where everyone pays the same percentage on all their income no deductions and we could do away with PST all together. However that will never happen because too many rich and self employed benefit from the system as is.
I am not saying you are in this category but "Joe Average" buys a new vehicle, HST or PST and never sees a dime of it back. So he would be looking for the best discount which at present is PST

 

[Kisinana]

What I was implying to is that you get to take that HST as a deduction which means the government does not get the tax from that actual sale. Before HST you at least paid part of the tax and were able to deduct the GST portion. They do collect that tax that you got as a reduction, from elsewhere which they already showed. There has been an increase in government revenue since they brought in the HST. Your deduction is being paid by someone else. Under the HST my tax bill went up where as yours went down. I would personally like to see a harmonized tax but one that is fair to everyone.
The one I would like to see an end to is being paid under the table. Government estimates are as high as 40 per cent lost revenue. If there was a way to end that they say that we would have less than a 1 percent percent PST.

 

[TheBigGuy]

Sometime this year, we taxpayers will receive an 'HST Compensation' payment.

This is indeed a very exciting program, and I'll explain it by using a Q & A format:

Q. What is an 'HST Compensation' payment ?

A. It is money that the provincial government will send to taxpayers.

Q.. Where will the government get this money ?

A. From taxpayers.

Q. So the government is giving me back my own money ?

A. Only a smidgen of it.

Q. What is the purpose of this payment ?

A. The plan is for you to use the money to purchase a high-definition TV set, thus stimulating the economy.

Q. But isn't that stimulating the economy of China ?

A. Shut up.

Below is some helpful advice on how to best help the economy by spending your compensation cheque wisely:

* If you spend the stimulus money at Wal-Mart, the money will go to China or Sri Lanka ...

* If you spend it on gasoline, your money will go to the Arabs.

* If you purchase a computer, it will go to India , Taiwan or China .

* If you purchase fruit and vegetables, it will go to Mexico , Honduras and Guatemala ....

* If you buy an efficient car, it will go to Japan or Korea ...

* If you purchase useless stuff, it will go to Taiwan .

* If you pay your credit cards off, or buy stock, it will go
To management bonuses and they will hide it offshore.

Instead, keep the money in Canada by:

1) Spending it at yard sales, or

2) Going to hockey games, or

3) Spending it on a hooker, or

4) Beer or

5) Tattoos.

(These are the only Canadian businesses still operating in Canada .)

Conclusion:

Go to a hockey game with a tattooed hooker you met at a yard
Sale and drink beer all day !

No need to thank me, I'm just glad I could be of help.