O•S•C•A•R© Fida's Pizza Changes Hands - Old Ottawa South

Page 18
By M. Lindsay Lambert
I
am very angry at Dalton McGuinty’s
Liberal Party’s decision to merge
the Ontario Provinical Sales
Tax with the GST. I had been quite
proud to be in a Province, which had
maintained a stand against the Federal
Government’s tax system on behalf of
its constituents.
The reason given for the HST is
that it will allow industry to become
more competitive through the removal
of the 8% PST that they now pay on
their inputs. Consumers will be taxed
more to make up the shortfall.
I operate a small business, and
don’t have a problem with paying some
Provincial Sales Tax. Like every other
commercial concern, I am currently
exempt from the PST on materials
and goods that I buy for resale, as my
customers ultimately pay the 8% levy.
I am only responsible for covering it
on other expenses.
I have been collecting Retail Sales
Tax for almost 28 years, doing my
part in supporting the system. The
remittance forms always include the
standard threat of penalties for late
filing or non-compliance. I find it very
curious that your government now
doesn’t care if I collect any RST at my
income level, unless I am charging the
Federal Government’s tax as well.
I want Ontario to retain our
current Retail Sales Tax System. It
The OSCAR - OUR 37 th YEAR MAY 2010
is our Provincial tax, and it is under
our control. It works in a more
balanced and human way than the
GST model: Since the RST was
introduced, it has gradually evolved in
response to economic change and new
requirements. The rate has increased
over the year, and it was extended
to most services in 1982. Certain
principles have been maintained
throughout, particularly the exemption
of essential goods and services. (It was
conceived as a tax on discretionary
purchases only.) There is a good
balance in the application of the tax
between businesses and consumers:
The former are exempt from the levy
on goods or materials that they buy for
resale, as their customers ultimately pay
it, but cover it on other costs. Everyone
benefits form Provincial Government
services, and we are all responsible for
maintaining them. The legislation also
recognizes that businesses are doing a
job in collecting and administering the
tax on behalf of the Province, and are
entitled to compensation.
The RST is a flexible tax. If your
government wishes to help businesses
during hard times, you could permit
them to claim back all their input taxes
until prosperity returns. You could also
encourage exports by providing rebates
directly related to the percentage of
goods sent out of the province.
Under the Harmonized Sales Tax,
Ontario will be abrogating its authority
HST Opposition
over the sales tax in favour of the
Federal Government’s rules. The HST,
based on the GST, is a very rigid tax
formula: It will permanently transfer
business’ share of the Provincial RST
to consumers, irrespective of whether
the economy is prospering or in
recession. The long-standing principle
of exemption necessities will be
discarded. Rebates to people with low
income and tax cuts elsewhere have
been promised, but I don’t believe
that they will be equal to the new tax
burden on the general public. The
provincial Liberal government’s claim
that the Province will actually be losing
revenue under the HST is nonsense.
Businesses will no longer be
compensated for collecting sales tax.
This is wrong: People can’t be pressganged
into working for free in this
day and age.
The McGuinty Liberals and
boosters of he Harmonized Sales Tax
have been asserting that businesses
will be lowering prices for consumers
with the removal of provincial sales
tax from their inputs under the new
system. Commerce doesn’t work this
way: businesses are the business to
make a profit, and tend to charge what
the market will bear.
The Mulroney Conservatives
made the same claim for the Goods and
Services Tax, regarding the removal of
the old federal Manufacturers’ Sales
Tax that was supposedly embedded in
prices.
When I registered to collect Retail
Sales Tax, I signed up my business.
My Vendor Permit is made out to
“M. Lindsay Lambert Restoration” as
were my RST Returns. The Goods and
Services Tax requires the registration
of one’s person, unless the business
is incorporated. The Federal tax also
defines private sales of used goods as
Non-Taxable Supply, and I assume that
both provisions will be extended to the
HST> This creates a legal inequality:
if you are registered as an individual,
everything that you do comes under
the rules of taxation. You cannot make
a private sale. Your employee can sell
his or her old chesterfield tax-free, but
you will automatically be a tax criminal
if you do the same. I expect to register
a business for sales tax purposes, but
no government has jurisdiction over
everything that I do in my life. I am
not government property, and will
never register for the HST under this
condition.
In October of last year, the
Ministry of Revenue assigned me a
new business number in place of my
original one, and the tax return slips
are now imprinted “M. Lambert.”
I telephoned to question this, and
was informed that the change was to
bring the RST in line with the GST.
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