Not without its opponents – all very vocal over the past few weeks – Ontario’s tax reform package has passed third reading in the legislature today.  Business groups, including the Ontario Chamber of Commerce (OCC) and the Smart Taxation Alliance see the sweeping changes (including a new harmonized sales tax) as a real boon to the economy and the future competitiveness of our province.  Shortly after the passage of the Ontario Tax Plan for More Jobs and Growth Act, 2009 (Bill 218), the OCC released this statement.

The passage effectively clears the way for a single 13% harmonized sales tax (HST) on goods and services and also introduces a number of tax measures for individuals and businesses that begin to take effect on January 1, 2010.

It is important that both businesses and consumers educate themselves about the tax package in its entirety, since there is much more to all of this than harmonizing the GST with the PST.  The Ministry of Revenue has a revamped website which provides an overview of all of the changes including “sample scenarios” to consider.  Additionally, to learn more about the HST and why so many economists and business leaders say this is the right way to go for Ontario, a great deal of information may be found here.  The Certified General Accountants (CGA) of Ontario have also released a booklet for business that addresses many common questions and concerns.

The key challenge that the government and supporters of the tax package continue to face is the mere fact that the HST in particular is a complex policy to explain and it’s relatively easy to label the measure as simply “more taxes”.  Lets all do ourselves a favour and evaluate all of the facts and come to our our own conclusions.  Clearly, not every industry is going to be falling head over heels for the tax package and the HST.  However, if it really is good for Ontario and will bring more investment, jobs and wealth to the province, isn’t that what we would all like to see?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 9th, 2009 at 1:11 pm and is filed under Issue This. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.