Can Vancouver Diversify its Economy?

[twoNeurons]

Or... we could just do what Alberta did and not have any PST or HST.

Problem solved. 5% on everything... and while we're at it... build it into the price.

[mezzanine]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Its interesting to note that the USA manages to be competitive without any kind of VAT, at the federal or state level.

IMO, that's because the USA is currently funding its financial obligations thru massive and unparalleled deficits.

Common around the world, including in Europe, such a tax -- called a value-added tax, or VAT -- has not been seriously considered in the United States. But advocates say few other options can generate the kind of money the nation will need to avert fiscal calamity.

(? can't post links for some reason, but peruse the washington post or WSJ articles here.

And I wouldn't look to the USA for enlightened tax policy either.

Thanks for the Tax Cut!
By LARRY DAVID
Published: December 20, 2010

THERE is a God! It passed! The Bush tax cuts have been extended two years for the upper bracketeers, of which I am a proud member, thank you very much. I’m the last person in the world I’d want to be beside, but I am beside myself! This is a life changer, I tell you. A life changer!
...
t’s also going to be a boon for my health. After years of coveting them, I’ll finally be able to afford blueberries. Did you know they have a lot of antioxidants, which prevent cancer? Cancer! This tax cut just might save my life. Who said Republicans don’t support health care? I’m going to have the blueberries with my cereal, and I’m not talking Special K. Those days are over. It’s nothing but real granola from now on. The kind you get in the plastic bins in health food stores. Did someone say “organic”?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/21/opinion/21david.html

[SpikePhanta]

I don't think its about retail tax, but rather for corporations and big industries.
And its not no tax vs. tax, but rather HST vs. PST+GST.

[mezzanine]

This is interesting - the GST is 20 yrs old and the star provides a good synopsis.

Former TD Bank chief economist Don Drummond, who was with (the Federal Ministry of) Finance at the time, said studies show a broad-based consumption tax is the least disruptive in a free-market.

“Most economists agree to varying degrees,” added Bank of Montreal deputy chief economist Douglas Porter. “I happen to think it was one of the better moves by federal governments in recent decades.”

The economic argument in favour of taxing consumption is that it allows governments to reduce income taxes, giving workers an added incentive to put in longer hours and seek higher-paying jobs, thereby increasing output.

...

(Former Minister of Finance Michael) Wilson picks up the story. By the mid-1980s, it had become apparent that the 13.5 per cent hidden tax on manufactured goods was unsustainable, he said.

Canada was in the process of signing a free-trade agreement with its most important trading partner and such a unilateral tax would have devastated the manufacturing sector. The industry was already hard-pressed to compete with its bigger, more productive, less taxed, counterparts south of the border. Plants would have closed, jobs lost, Wilson said.

There was no doubt about that, Drummond agreed. “One percentage point of the (manufacturers tax) used to get imbedded in our export prices. That may not sound like a big deal, but if you are only making a five per cent profit margin, that’s 20 per cent of your profits taken away,” he explained.

The problem, Wilson said, was that consumers didn’t know they were paying a tax every time they bought a Canadian-produced good. The GST was in your face every time you bought something.

http://www.thestar.com/business/arti...hated-tax?bn=1

[whatnext]

deleted-wrong thread

[Spork]

---unneeded---

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by Spork

Politics in the politics thread, pal.

Sorry, I thought it was a discussion of the joys of higher taxes.

[mezzanine]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Sorry, I thought it was a discussion of the joys of higher taxes.

The tax-lovers at the canadian taxpayer's federation seem to prefer the HST to the PST.

"[The PST] has been a bad idea, a job-killing tax for the last 63 years and whatever the problems are with the HST, and there are lots of them, going back to the PST is just a dumb idea. No one would introduce the PST today in its current form

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-col...#ixzz1C9wyBxVU

[wrenegade]

There have been a lot of articles in the papers regarding taxation recently (a couple below), both on the HST and on the lowering of the Federal Corporate Tax rate, both of which are good things.

You Pay Corporate Tax

Rolling back corporate tax cuts would rock economy

Corporate Tax Cuts to Create 100,000 Jobs

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by twoNeurons

Or... we could just do what Alberta did and not have any PST or HST.

Problem solved. 5% on everything... and while we're at it... build it into the price.

EXACTLY ... your last point .... BUILD IT INTO THE PRICE !! Nothing more irksome than seeing an item selling at $xx.xx, then finding that the price is $xy.zy at the checkout.

In Europe (including the UK) the tax is included on the listed shelf price. Why not in Canada?

[wrenegade]

Originally Posted by trofirhen

In Europe (including the UK) the tax is included on the listed shelf price. Why not in Canada?

Because we have different tax rates in different provinces. National retailers would have to advertise differently, online retailers would have to break down their prices based on which province, etc. It would be a headache. Lowering the HST to 10% after 2012 is the best route in my opinion. It would further hurt revenues yes, but government needs to slash it's spending on on so so many things regardless of revenues. 10% is also a nice easy number to calculate what things would actually cost in the end.

[mr.x]

Adios, Intrawest.

[cornholio]

Originally Posted by awvan

There have been a lot of articles in the papers regarding taxation recently (a couple below), both on the HST and on the lowering of the Federal Corporate Tax rate, both of which are good things.

You Pay Corporate Tax

Rolling back corporate tax cuts would rock economy

Corporate Tax Cuts to Create 100,000 Jobs

You seriously believe your quality of life improves with corporate tax cuts?

Believe me it doesnt, all your doing is giving corporations more power to "exploit" you, and their good at doing that and when they do that your "quality of life" gets trashed to the point where its just good enough.

I cant believe people still eat this BS up, although I suppose in our society if money represents power then the corporations hold most of it. The forces and amounts invested in to selling us the ideas you have brought up are enormous.

[Alex Mackinnon]

Originally Posted by cornholio

You seriously believe your quality of life improves with corporate tax cuts?

Believe me it doesnt, all your doing is giving corporations more power to "exploit" you, and their good at doing that and when they do that your "quality of life" gets trashed to the point where its just good enough.

I cant believe people still eat this BS up, although I suppose in our society if money represents power then the corporations hold most of it. The forces and amounts invested in to selling us the ideas you have brought up are enormous.

You know potentially it does! Companies which see a nice kick from this are incedentally the ones what generate well paying jobs. Our standard of living isn't getting any better by a large portion of the population work in low level service industry jobs you know...

On the bid I'm working on right now these tax changes save Hydro somewhere to the order of 12% on our total bid by not having to pay HST. There you go, saved a few $M off just one capital project.

And for those of us who have to work on the road 7% is saved on every meal now because the tax is n/a.