I would like to share the following information with you regarding the New Ontario Harmonized Sales tax which is effective July 1, 2010 (it's a combination of PST and GST in one - 13% in total)
It is not going away, so we will have to learn how to deal with the issue and build it into our day-to-day affairs and budget.
The bad news is that is will increase the cost of certain items ( i.e. gas , utilities and much more below )
The good news it that it will create credits where there were none before. I.e. In the past, if a salesperson had to pay GST on an item , that permitted the individual to claim that GST paid on their return as credit. When it came to PST there was a different protocol; PST could not be claimed as a credit. Under the new HST that will change. Identical to the way GST allows a registrant to claim an input tax credit on items purchased for the purpose of carrying on business, this will now apply to the entire HST.
In the past there were certain items that were subject to PST or GST alone, now everything will be charged both.
Where there were rebates before, there will be rebates now.
As far as real estate concerned the tax will apply to various aspects of the transaction. This will include charges for real estate commission, home inspections, legal services, high ratio mortgage insurance premiums, fire insurance premiums, moving costs, appraisal fees, surveys etc.
Under the new regime, buying a house where the appliances are included will result in additional tax.
Gifts from the Government:
The budget of March 2009 contemplates providing a once only credit to businesses of up to $1000.00 where the business has less than $2,000,000.00 in annual revenues from HST taxable sales.
Single parents and couples with incomes of less than $160,000.00 will be entitled to a payment of $1,000.00 and finally single individuals earning less than $80,000.00 will be entitled to receive a one time payment of $300
The budget also provides for annual payments to low-income individuals and families of up to $260.00 with incomes of less than $25,000.00
