The Squamish Chamber of Commerce's board has taken a position in favour of the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) "as the best tax system for B.C.," Chamber president Maurice Freitag told a group this week.
That's also the position endorsed in a big way by David Robertson, a tax litigator with Ernst and Young and chartered accountant, during a presentation the Chamber's monthly luncheon on Tuesday (June 21) at Sunwolf Outdoor Centre - and not just because it's the best solution for businesses.
Robertson described himself as a "tax geek" whose business levels have actually dropped since the old Provincial Sales Tax (PST) was abolished. "This is lousy for my practice, and yet I'm still going to stand here and say, 'This (HST) is really a good thing for my province,'" he said.
He said that in his view the HST is a win-win-win for families, low- and medium-income British Columbians and businesses.
He described many of the claims made by former premier and anti-HST crusader Bill Vander Zalm about the HST as "myths" and urged attendees not to be fooled into going back to the PST.
To illustrate his point, Robertson used the example of a trucker who makes $50,000 a year but has to purchase a $100,000 truck to make his living. Under the PST, the trucker would have to pay $7,000 in tax on the truck, then seven per cent for new tires, repairs, his cell phone bill, etc., Robertson said.
With the HST, though, the trucker would get that money back because it's money he had to spend to make his living. The same goes for a schoolteacher who needs to buy a computer to do his or her work, he said.
"PST taxes you on everything you need to earn a living, whereas HST doesn't," he said.
Robertson, who has taken part in panel discussions across the province on the opposite side of the lectrum from Vander Zalm, said it's also a myth that the HST hurts those in the lowest income brackets. "That's a lie," he said, pointing out that lower income earners are better off with the HST because they get more back in rebates - $230 per person, per year, or $920 for a family of four. Under the PST, those in lower income brackets received a $75 per person, but only for each adult, for a total of $150.
"For a low-income family that $920 translates into about $14,000 in purchases that they would have to make that's subject to the tax," he said.
Going back to the PST would "blow a $3-billion hole in the provincial budget," including the $1.6 billion B.C. received from Ottawa after making the switch that would have to be returned, Robertson said.
He stressed that he's not a member of a political party and does not endorse either the way the HST was rolled out, or its aftermath. "Gordon Campbell and the government did a terrible job of bringing it in and explaining it," he said, adding that the Liberals' explanations are still lacking in spite of the fact that the province-wide referendum campaign is underway.
When Ontario introduced the tax a few months before B.C., the government there gave everyone a refund cheque to soften the initial blow, said Robertson, adding that he would have immediately dropped the overall tax rate from 12 to 11 per cent if he had been part of the B.C. government policy team.
He said the "fix" announced the Finance Minister Kevin Falcon - including rebates of $350 per family to cover the period from now to 2014, when the overall rate drops to 10 per cent and a two per cent increase in the corporate tax rate -represents a "rebalancing" of B.C.'s overall tax system. "Everyone pays $300 more now, but once it's reduced, we'll pay $120 per person less," Robertson said.
One attendee said he was upset with the way the question on the HST referendum ballot is worded - that a "No" vote actually means voters are voting "Yes" in favour of the HST. "They're trying to trick us," the man said.
Robertson said the question was decided by B.C.'s Chief Electoral Officer, who heads up a body that's supposed to be free of political influence, not by the ruling party.
Tuesday's meeting also included the presentation of the Squamish Green Business Award to Noel Koehn, owner of Newport Auto Ltd. The auto repair shop was honoured for its commitment to environmental best practices through an award given out jointly by the Squamish Chamber of Commerce and the Squamish Climate Action Network.
