HST gone, GST/PST system restored in BC
Posted April 1, 2013 6:58 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – If you’re going out for dinner, getting your hair cut, or buying a bike today, you’ll be saving a little cash.
BC’s tumultuous relationship with the Harmonized Sales Tax came to an end at midnight and the old GST/PST system has now been restored. That means all of the old PST exemptions, like gym memberships, are back.
BC Minister of State for Small Business Naomi Yamamoto admits it’s hard to keep track of what is exempt and what isn’t.
“[Businesses may ask] if there is PST… if it’s clothes or comforters?” says Yamamoto. “Those are the little things that businesses may ask about.”
The BC Chamber of Commerce expects the first few days of the transition back to the two-tax system to be a little chaotic.
Yamamoto predicts it will be business as usual, though she says many businesses still aren’t ready. “We expect 100,000 have to register, and of that 100,000 we expect about 75,000 have registered.”
Businesses that haven’t registered aren’t eligible to collect PST.
The BC Liberals introduced the HST in 2009, but it was rejected in a referendum in August, 2011.
Click here to find out what’s taxable under the PST
