The HST Blog : Canada Harmonized Sales Tax Lawyer Cyndee Todgham Cherniak for Assessments, PST & RST Issues in Ontario, British Columbia & Quebec

Tomorrow is June 30, 2010, the last day before the sales tax world in Ontario and British Columbia changes.  Today you should ask yourself, CAN I MAKE A PURCHASE AND SAVE HST.

Consumers will be thinking about saving HST. The question that needs to be asked is what is not subject to Ontario retail sales tax, but will be subject to HST.  I cannot provide an all-inclusive list.  However, here are a few suggestions on what you might buy today:

• land survey (I am doing this today believe it or not)
• landscaping services
• house cleaning services
• painting services
• if you sign an agreement of purchase and sale of a previously lived-in home, you may save the real estate commission
• if you take possession and title of a newly built home before July 1, 2010, you save the HST
• hair dressing/colouring services
• manicure/pedicure
• massage
• dry cleaning
• taking Rover to the vet
• visiting the dentist for teeth whitening (not on my list - sorry Dr Jay)
• ask a lawyer to draft a will or a pre-nuptial agreement
• buy a domain name (is your name taken yet?)
• fill up your home heating fuel tank
• propane for the summer barbeque
• clean the swimming pool
• one last pre-HST Botox injection
• one last work-out at the gym
• energy-efficient home appliances are exempt from ORST
• bicycles are exempt from ORST
• custom computer software is exempt from ORST
• subscription to Cosmo, Oprah, Mike Holmes or any magazine that interests you
• notice in the newspaper about a garage sale, birth notice, death notice, in memoriam, etc.
• ticket to see a play in a small local theater
• ticket to a dinner theater
• pre-paid funeral expenses/deposit on final resting place

What is on your list?

I will be writing another post tomorrow on the purchases that businesses have been waiting to make in order to save the unrecoverable ORST and recover HST by way of input tax credit.

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The Winnipeg Press Press (an unlikely resource for HST information) reports in an article entitled "B.C. massage therapists will have to charge HST on chronic disease patients" that massage therapists must charge HST on massage services to chronic pain patients, even if they have a doctor's note and the services are medically necessary. There are many human conditions that require massage therapy as a medical treatment.

The article states:

The NDP says people in B.C. who suffer from chronic diseases and need massage therapy are the latest to be hit by the harmonized sales tax.

Health critic Adrian Dix says massage therapists who treat people with diseases such as multiple sclerosis will have to charge their patients the HST, pushing treatment costs toward $100 an hour.

He says the government is imposing the tax despite warnings from patients and health care professionals that it hurt those needing the treatment for chronic illness.

However, Finance Minister Colin Hansen says a health profession can't be exempted from federal tax unless it's regulated in at least five provinces, and massage therapists are only regulated in three — Ontario, Newfoundland and British Columbia.

He says the government is providing a HST credit for low and modest income people as well as increasing the basic personal amount tax credit.

Meanwhile, organizers of an anti-HST petition say they've now signed up 15 per cent of registered voters in all but five of B.C.'s 85 ridings, five per cent more than the minimum needed for the petition to succeed in getting either a vote in the legislature or a referendum.

This gap in the tax system will cost insurance companies and individuals.  If you have a doctor's note, you may be reimbursed under some health insurance policies for the massage services (but, then again, doctor's may charge you for a note to provide to your insurance company (also subject to HST).  If you do not have insurance coverage for the massage services, then it is a taxable health care costs to individuals (on top of employer health taxes, fair share health levies, insurance premiums, taxes on insurance premiums, etc.).

The good news is that if the massage therapy is provided by a registered nurse, a registered nursing assistant, a licensed or registered practical nurse, it will be exempt from HST.

It is also important to distinguish between massage (which is taxable) and chiropractic services (exempt) and physiotherapy  services (exempt). So, it may be a characterization problem for some chronic pain patients.

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