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The GST was aimed at removing the previous VATs, right? And the Liberals "Copped" out. : D
i'm not a tax expert, but generally it seems that, if taxes are to be talked about, wealth should be taxed.
let's talk about taxes on speculative financial transactions, on derivatives, credit default swaps, and all the risky financial products which crashed the economy and which continue to balloon and distort any sensible means of making policy decisions.
Taxing risky financial transactions will, aside from providing much needed money for social programs, also be a first step towards proper accounting: The games of financiers will have to come out of their private woodwork. We can send out a decree that all the world shall be taxed, progressively though. Make sure the bankers put all the chips on the table. Tax them accordingly.
Of course do all the other necessary restrictions on risky trading, break-up of corporate/investment houses, use the Bank of Canada to fund directly public infrastructure and public services, and use taxes on wealth to support those who have suffered from the deregulation of finance and irresponsibility of policy makers.
Absolutely.
I agree. The system needs to be multi-faceted.
i'm trying to say that;
a) the HST is lousy, as a consumption tax, as a burden on Indigenous people, on low income people, and on middle income people,
b) its incorrect to assume that residents are ignorant and don't know the difference between taxes for them and taxes for wealthy people or corporate banks,
c) the usual argument for refraining from taxing corporations has been that they will pack their bags and leave for Mexico or China if we do so,
d) talk about corporate taxation needs to be combined with buy-Canadian policies, increase in public infrastructure and public services using public funds that can't be offshored, changing trade deals to support such, along with financial reform, so that we aren't continually at the mercy of threats,
while at the same time
e) taxing speculative finance as noted previously.
The problem with Bill 218 (not "the HST" per se) is about revenue - the corporate and income tax cuts attached to it results in less revenue. There is of course the issue of unfairness about corporate tax breaks. Nobody here is disputing those tax cuts are wrong.
But the anti-HST campaign primarily focuses on the fact that there are fewer exemptions than before, which nicely dovetails the "Dalton's Tax on Everything"/DST campaign run by the Hudak Tories. The outrage about taxing cable, coffee, condo fees and Christmas trees is a sideshow at best and fueling a tax revolt at worst.
Harmonizing the tax in and of itself is not a problem. It should have as few exemptions as possible to maximize its revenue-raising potential.
Better to reverse Harper's GST tax cut and increase transfers to low-income households.
While progressivity does matter (and I've argued for increasing income taxes on the wealthy and business taxes), if you examine social welfare indicators comparatively the % of GDP coming from taxation matters more than the progressvity of the tax code. For instance the US relies much more on progressive taxation than Sweden does in relative if not absolute terms.
Actually Tommy, you are dead wrong on the collection/administration of the GST/HST.
I will admit to being wrong often, but not often dead wrong. When flat taxes are used to redistribute wealth, or taken from people and then rebated, then, by god, that's a Rube Goldberg approach to taxation if there ever was one. And, I'd dispute that sales taxes are simply charged and then remitted to government as efficiently and simply as you say, Ken. There's been cases of PST fraud going back years, where electronic devices have been used to hide sales, and the tax pocketed by the retailer.
http://www.taxes.ca/blog/archives/tax_fraud/index.php
Taxation isn't complicated. You make "x" you pay "y". Anything more complicated than that is for the purposes of hiding something.
And provincial sales taxes when compared to GST/HST have more opportunities for fraud, because of the complexities of when it does and does not apply.
So, the simpler the better then, I see we agree.
Actually Ken that is hugely over-stated. The reality is that a lot of this taxation, regardless of the system, is done on the honour system. It is neither more or less difficult to defraud whether it is pst, or HST, or gst.
Actually, I oversimplified rather than overstated.
GST/HST is very easy to bilk- but you are pretty certain to be caught for anything but pocket change. PST systems take more work to bilk. But their complexities offer a lot of cover for potential fraudsters. The complexities are much greater than what the consumer sees, or even a pure retailer. If you are a manufacturer, no matter what size, what applies where makes your head spin... and you can spend hours corresponding with bureaucrats over how the minutae applies to case X and Y.
I have no idea how much people try to bilk PST systems on some kind of modest or large scale, let alone how successful they are at it and getting away with it... but I know there is at least a perception it is possible. The only people who would try to bilk GST/HST are on the same order as someone writing a lot of bad checks: you can get some quick cash that way, but you will be caught.
From the administrative perspective, and I really mean only from that perspective, the beauty of the GST/HST is that it is structured in a way that it can largely run on the honour system. Which makes it easy to monitor: you do get contacted and politely questioned if your reporting and remitting kicks out anomalays. Income taxes and PSTs are both more difficult to administer and require substantially broader and more aggressive auditing.
Long thread.