You pay no PST but you pay $6 for a slice of pizza and $4 for a glass of lemonade!!! Only 5% GST and ZERO PST...

Desi in Alberta.. that funny but I agree.

Check before order lemonade most of the time there is no free refills. I don’t like to pay $12 for just drinks without alcohol.

Quote:

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Originally posted by Desi in Alberta

You pay no PST but you pay $6 for a slice of pizza and $4 for a glass of lemonade!!! Only 5% GST and ZERO PST...

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The taxes are good - they will deter the buyers from being trapped. Real estate is falling and continue to fall for years.

Rent and wait, then buy at 50% off. The taxes also will be gone by then - saving you even more!

DIA

http://www.greaterfool.ca/2009/03/28/the-destroyers/

Soon nobody in Ontario will be able to sell a house without first paying for a Green Audit. That will cost $300 to hire a guy in a yellow hardhat and cheap plastic safety glasses to walk through your house with a clipboard. He will write down what you already know, and what a decent home inspector would tell a buyer. Leaky windows, inefficient furnace, wasted hot water, whatever. An unfavourable report, naturally, will devalue your home and make it harder to sell. It will also tax you three bills.

* Soon the same evil province will take action which force all other holdouts to follow it, and merge its sales tax with the GST. As I have already detailed, this is the mother of all new taxes for the real estate industry. Suddenly there will be an extra 8% to pay on real estate commission, legal fees, moving costs, appraisal fees and every duct cleaning guy or lawn-cutter you ever hire.

Worse, the blended sales tax will apply to new homes priced at over $400,000. Buyers of houses up to a half million will get a partial rebate, but above $500,000, there will be a 13% levy slapped right on the purchase price. BTW, five large does not buy that much in Oakville or North Toronto or Ottawa. The result will be about $40,000 added to the cost of homes over $525,000 – and, you can bet, a lot fewer of them built.

* And then there is the idiot land transfer tax which was imposed on real estate transactions – all of them – in Toronto a year ago. All properties changing hands for $400,000 or less pay an extra 1% (on top of the provincial LTT), and the charge doubles for places over that threshold. On that same $525,000 house, this means tax of $13,200. Mix in the harmonized sales tax, and the price rises by more than $50,000 – or a full 10% of the property value.

Add the above to the reasons I detailed yesterday that real estate is entering into a multi-year recession.

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Our experts mentioned many times that GTA is different and immigrant will keep house price stable in GTA. Do people still believe expert’s logic?

For those interested in following happenings in the legislature on this issue, please check the http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=140800095293&topic=7330 often.

Thanks,

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Rajeev Narula, Broker, REALTOR®
ACE TEAM REALTY INC., Brokerage
10 Kingsbridge Garden Circle, Suite 704
(Opp Square One - HWY10/403)
Mississauga, ON L5R 3K6
Bus: 1-888-355-3155 Ext. 300
Fax: 1-888-443-3155
Email:
Web: http://www.RAJEEV.ca" rel="nofollow">LINK

Quote:

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Originally posted by Desi in Alberta

The taxes are good - they will deter the buyers from being trapped. Real estate is falling and continue to fall for years.

Rent and wait, then buy at 50% off. The taxes also will be gone by then - saving you even more!

DIA

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Hi Rajiv,

I signed the petition at that time and now I have received 2 responses (one at the time of sending the letter and second now )from my MPP, Mr. Balkissoon Das which I am posting here for every one to read.


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Dear Pramod Chopra:

This is to acknowledge receipt of your e-mail re: Sales Tax Harmonization to Mr. Bas Balkissoon, M.P.P., Scarborough - Rouge River.

Your e-mail will be brought to Mr. Balkissoon’s attention for his review and action at his earliest opportunity.

Mr. Balkissoon’s schedule does not always provide the convenience to issue a response, if any, from the office by e-mail. As such, he may be responding by letter or phone.

To assist Mr. Balkissoon in responding to your concerns, he would appreciate that you provide us with the following contact information:
1. Full Residential Address
2. Telephone Number (Day and evening if possible)

This information will facilitate the most expeditious action on your concerns.

Please email us back with this information at your earliest convenience.

Thank you,

Sincerely,

Nirmalan Vadivel, Special Assistant
Office of Bas Balkissoon,
MPP Scarborough-Rouge River
416-297-5040


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This is received today.


Dear Pramod Chopra,

Thank you for your letter regarding the tax reforms proposed in the McGuinty government’s 2009 Budget. I appreciate your having taken the time to share your feedback on the proposal, and I have shared your thoughts and concerns with my colleague the Minister of Finance, who is responsible for tax policy.

Today’s economic challenges facing our government in Ontario of lost jobs (currently 150,000 and estimated to rise to 400,000 by the end of 2009), lower exports, etc. requires us to rethink our economic strategies and make tough decisions to protect and create jobs to restore their economies to prosperity similar to other governments around the globe.

Our government has taken some bold steps in the 2009 budgets that affect all of us in the short term but will restore prosperity in the future and ensure the young people will have jobs available in the future.

While your letter addresses specifically the government’s proposed single sales tax, please allow me to share with you some background and explanation regarding the government’s broader tax reform package – the core of the government’s long-term economic plan.

Canada and Ontario is in the grip of a global economic crisis. Together, we have to do everything we can to help our people get through these difficult times, and build a stronger Ontario for the future.

The McGuinty government believes that the comprehensive tax reform package proposed in the 2009 Budget is the single most important thing we can do to save jobs and position our economy for future growth. The reform has three parts: a modern, more efficient sales tax system; $10.6 billion over three years in tax relief for Ontarians especially low and middle income earners; and $4.5 billion over three years in tax relief for business.

The McGuinty government is proposing to move to a single, value-added sales tax on July 1, 2010. This reform will make our tax system more efficient, saving businesses investment costs and more than $500 million a year in paperwork costs. This will make Ontario more competitive and will lead to more jobs and new investment.


Our government would help families and businesses adjust to this new value added tax (HST) by:

· Exempting books, children’s clothing and footwear, diapers, children’s car seats and car booster seats and feminine hygiene products from the eight per cent provincial portion of the tax
· Ensuring that newly constructed homes valued under $400,000 – which account for about 75 per cent of new homes – would not be subject to an additional tax amount because of the sales tax system. Buyers of new homes valued between $400,000 and $500,000 could also claim a proportional rebate. This rebate is significantly more generous than the GST rebate for newly constructed homes. The single sales tax would not apply to resale homes.
· Helping small businesses make the transition to a single, value-added sales tax by providing up to $400 million in one-time transition support through a sales tax credit.

The 2009 Budget would also provide $10.6 billion over three years in permanent tax relief and direct payments to help Ontarians adjust to a single sales tax.

Every eligible family with an income below $160,000 would receive three payments from the province, totalling $1,000, while individuals with an income of less than $80,000 would receive three payments totalling $300.
The first payment would arrive in June 2010, the second in December 2010 and the third in June 2011.

We would also help low- and middle-income families transition to a single sales tax by providing a permanent sales tax credit of up to $260 annually for each adult and child. Also, we are providing broad-based, permanent personal income tax cuts that would see 93 per cent of Ontario taxpayers pay less personal income tax, and families and individuals with up to $80,000 of income receive an average tax cut of 10 per cent. This significant package of tax relief for people will mean more money in the pockets of those who need it most.

To help businesses become more competitive, the McGuinty government is proposing to cut the Corporate Income Tax (CIT) rate for small businesses by 18 per cent, while further reducing the general CIT rate to 12 per cent on July 1, 2010 and to 10 per cent by 2013. We are also proposing to cut the manufacturing and processing CIT rate – which includes businesses like farming, fishing, mining and logging from 12 per cent to 10 per cent by July 1, 2010.

This budget also proposes to eliminate a barrier to growth for small businesses by getting rid of the CIT small business deduction surtax, making Ontario the only Canadian jurisdiction that does not claw back the benefit of the small business deduction.

Once fully implemented, our comprehensive tax reform package would cut Ontario’s marginal effective tax rate on new investment in half. This would make Ontario one of the most competitive jurisdictions in the industrialized world for new investment, effectively creating more employment opportunities in the near future.

An additional personal comment would be that as your representative for many years, I try to provide a very balanced approach and honestly believe there is never a right time for implementation of progressive changes in taxation.

Our government has been given this challenge of a global economic contraction and we were not prepared to make the same failed decisions of the past but have taken a bold step through this budget in preparing our province to return stronger than before.

Our plan is intended to create jobs in our province through current and new investments to assist those who have lost employment and also for our young people in the future.

It is unfortunate that we cannot guarantee that businesses pass on the savings but studies and statistics in the provinces where the sales tax is harmonized clearly shows that prices changed and job creation in a positive manner did occur with the passing of time as a result of local businesses being more competitive.

Now is the right time to help families and businesses being hurt by this global recession. We’re taking even more action to make our economy more competitive, because our ability to strengthen the schools and health care services that families rely on depends on a growing economy.

Thank you again for writing.

Sincerely,




Bas Balkissoon, MPP
Scarborough-Rouge River

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Pramod Chopra
Senior Mortgage Consultant
Mortgage Alliance Company of Canada