Friday Augsut 26th All Will Be Revealed Re BC Referendum Results
Elections BC has announced that it will announce the British Columbia Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) referendum results on Friday - August 26, 2011. We are on pins and needles waiting for the news of the results.
The Vancouver Sun has reported that "Provincial officials have said it could take up to two years to eliminate the HST if it is voted down in the referendum." So, whatever the referendum results, the HST is not going away in BC soon.
What is remarkable to me (someone who has actually read the CITCA (the agreement between B.C. and the Federal Government concerning the HST), is all this talk about B.C. having to pay back the $1.6 million. It seems to me that if the HST was introduced in B.C. on July 1, 2010 and it is now August 2011 and it will take "up to 2 years to eliminate the HST, the HST may be in effect in BC until August 2013.
BC is able under the CITCA to reduce the rate after two years and not breach the agreement. So, under the CITCA, the rate can be reduced as of July 1, 2012. What is wrong with reducing the rate to 0% in order to save the $1.6 Billion?
Also, I find it interesting that it takes less than one year to implement the HST, but twice as long to eliminate it. This is one of those things that makes you go hmmmmmmmm?????
If the "Yes" vote wins, the province will need time to change the tax regime. What I have said previously does not undermine that reality. What I am commenting on is unreasonable statements by officials prior to the release of the result. They may be trying to establish expectations. If that is the case, the officials will fail if they continue to make statements that cannot withstand scrutiny.
Cyndee Todgham Cherniak is counsel to and in affiliation with the International Trade Law and the Tax Law (Commodity Tax
Now that the HST has been defeated I hear more and more people talking about that 1.6 billion that needs to be repaid. Someone told me that that amount was originally suppose to be only a loan anyway. As I do not have access to the original agreement, I can't verify that. Can you? As to the time it takes to re-implement the PST..well that was to be expected if the Provincial government got rid of all its bureaucrats at the taxation level. I doubt that so...hmmmm is right. They are now saying at least 18 mos.
Either that or they began the implementation of the dreaded tax long before the election was even called...and that is even more problematic no?
Now that the HST has been defeated I hear more and more people talking about that 1.6 billion that needs to be repaid. Someone told me that that amount was originally suppose to be only a loan anyway. As I do not have access to the original agreement, I can't verify that. Can you? As to the time it takes to re-implement the PST..well that was to be expected if the Provincial government got rid of all its bureaucrats at the taxation level. I doubt that so...hmmmm is right. They are now saying at least 18 mos.
Either that or they began the implementation of the dreaded tax long before the election was even called...and that is even more problematic no?