TAX NEWS - 2010

Canada HST: An HST quiz

The B.C. Liberals this week marked the onset of sales-tax harmonization with a nifty quiz on the government website that invited taxpayers to test their "HST savvy."

Matters addressed range from whether Greenland has an HST (it doesn't) to whether potato chips will be taxed at 12 per cent (they will). Good to see the Liberals not shying away from the big issues in this debate.

Still, they couldn't cover everything. Here's a baker's dozen's worth of questions that didn't make the cut, for reasons that should be obvious.


1. During their second term of office, the Liberals spent several years reviewing and reforming the provincial sales tax. They said it was because:

a) We're just marking time until we kill it in the third term.
b) This should lull you into believing we'd never harmonize with the federal sales tax.
c) We do not want to give our sovereign tax rights away to the federal government.


2. The B.C. Liberals say that during the 2009 election they didn't quite promise NOT to harmonize the sales tax. This is because:

a) Nobody thought they'd be that stupid.
b) They'd broken so many promises, it wasn't possible to check all of them.
c) They'd ruled it out so thoroughly in the past, nobody thought to ask.


3. Two days after the election, Premier Gordon Campbell was advised the deficit would be $1.2 billion, not the $495 million he'd proclaimed as the "maximum" during the campaign. He replied:

a) Boy, will I have egg on my face.
b) The voters will never believe this.
c) Why am I getting this number now?


4. Campbell then ordered finance ministry officials to "go out and find out how we're going to meet the budget target." Next day they:

a) Cancelled plans to add a $600-million roof to BC Place.
b) Sought to borrow another $1 billion at the very attractive interest rates available to government.
c) Fired off a fast e-mail to Ottawa, asking what was the standing offer for transition funding on the HST.


5. On July 23, Premier Campbell and Finance Minister Colin Hansen announced that B.C. would harmonize the sales tax. To placate voters they said:

a) Stop whining, we only told the caucus two days ago.
b) We lied and that's the truth.
c) This is the single most important thing we can do for the B.C. economy.


6. On March 30 the B.C. Liberals introduced the enabling legislation for the HST. They called it:

a) The B.C. Harmonized Sales Tax Act, of course.
b) The not-the-HST, where-did-you-everget-that-idea Act.
c) The Consumption Tax Rebate and Transition Act.


7. On the day the legislation was introduced, New Democratic Party leader Carole James was asked what her party would do about the HST. She replied:

a) Elect me, and it is history.
b) Ask our other leader, Bill Vander Zalm.
c) I'd give notice that we'd try to negotiate our way out of it five years from now.


8. Former finance minister Carole Taylor was asked her view of the HST. She replied:

a) No comment, I've retired from politics.
b) No comment, I'm waiting for a leadership draft.
c) The tax is a $1.8-billion tax shift at the expense of consumers and before the last election he said he wouldn't do it, then right afterward he did.


9. At one point in the spring, Bill Vander Zalm floated his proposal to replace the HST. He'd instead:

a) Boost the property purchase tax, which he introduced during his time as premier.
b) Cut off funding for abortions, as he tried to do when he was premier.
c) Bring in a provincial value-added tax, imposed on "all goods and services," same as the federal GST, only at a lower rate.


10. As the anti-HST petition gathered momentum, Finance Minister Hansen vowed to "push back against the misinformation." He meant the Liberals would:

a) Recall their 2009 election platform.
b) Shred copies of their own speeches.
c) Commission a taxpayer-financed communications campaign.


11. During testimony in the BC Rail trial, the premier's chief of staff, Martyn Brown, was advised Blair Lekstrom had resigned from cabinet in protest over the HST. He said he'd not been following the news and added:

a) Next you'll be telling me that Bill Vander Zalm is the most popular political leader in the province.
b) You leave Gordon Campbell in charge for a few weeks and everything goes to hell.
c) That comes as a complete revelation to me and a rather disappointing one as well.


12. Asked whether anything was more unpopular than the HST, Premier Campbell replied:

a) You mean, other than my plan to run for a fourth term?
b) Well, wait till people find out we've awarded BP the right to drill for oil and gas off the Northwest coast.
c) Well, potentially there's me.


13. July 1, 2012 looms large in the province's political future. It is:

a) The date by which anti-HST organizers expect to finish recalling the last Liberal MLA.
b) The date by which the defence in the BC Rail case expects to finish cross-examining Martyn Brown.
c) The date on which the Liberals hope to exercise the option to reduce the provincial share of the HST by a point or two, presuming they survive recall.


Answers: No prizes for guessing "c" in every case. Enjoy your last few HST-free hours in peace.