It's just that no one knows. The situation stems from tax laws that were laid down in , two years before the GST was first charged, and when significant e-commerce was still years away.
Under the Excise Tax Act, companies that do business in Canada are expected to register with the government and charge the appropriate taxes. But an outfit like Netflix — which has no stores, employees or other assets north of the border — can duck that requirement.
The same goes for iTunes but not the Apple Store , other media outlets, online games and networks, and e-books from Amazon. Among individuals, Loomer says, seemingly no one obeys the law. It's difficult to enforce, and any revenue the government would stand to regain has, historically, been minimal. Compliance is "virtually zero … I've never heard of anyone who's complied," he says. But consider the numbers. Ottawa has floated the idea, most recently in the federal budget, which had a line about ensuring "effective collection of sales tax on e-commerce sales … by foreign-based vendors.
Finance Canada says that feedback informed Canada's participation in a recent project at the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development aimed at addressing the "tax challenges of the digital economy.
The government is reviewing that project's final report, according to a Finance Canada spokesman. Other countries have already introduced a so-called "Netflix tax. But it remains to be seen if those laws will be effective. This transaction fee is close to what I pay for GST but still annoying. So most of the time I buy my books from sites that benefit me the most and not the Federal Government.
About the only time I buy from Kobo is when I do have a coupon. It's a rather sad situation as I feel that I should be giving my business to a Canadian company. The only times I can think of that it would be to my benefit to buy from Kobo would be if the exchange on the US dollar was unusually high. Originally Posted by addicted2books. I think it's more just the principal of GST that bothers me the most. I understand that the GST is supposed to help fund all the things that have been mentioned but these things were also funded before there was a GST.
The concept of having additional taxes rammed down my throat doesn't sit well. There is no doubt that I end up paying my share of GST through my everyday activities on Canadian soil, from the gas I buy to the groceries and appliances that are a part of my home. If it wasn't GST it would be higher income tax. It's not like we're being charged more tax due to GST than we would have been without it.
It's just laying it out in different patterns. GST allowed the government to ensure that the tax only applied to certain things, so that food and other vitals wouldn't be charged that tax. Manage Print Subscription.
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