TAXED TO THE MAX!
Are You Fed Up Yet?

by Stephen Wahl
My apologies for this rant and be forewarned, it's a long one.

While taxation is not specifically a civic issue, it is an issue with all levels of government. I figured I might as well just combine every little note I've made about various new taxes and surcharges over the last few months, many of which make no sense with respect to policy goals or are often applied incorrectly or even abused by businesses.

One example: Newfoundland just imposed a sugar tax on soft drinks with sugar, fruity drinks, lemonades and anything like that. They're trying to have people choose healthier alternatives than high fructose corn syrup drinks. So drinks with artificial sweeteners or no sugar are exempted.

But in British Columbia?

Our provincial government has the same goal of persuading British Columbians to choose healthier options than sugary colas, which are no longer covered by the PST exemption for “food products”. But if you happen to choose an alternative like a sugar-free cola, something with artificial sweeteners, or even a carbonated drink without anything but a twist of lime, our government will still happily apply the PST to those too.

They must figure that distinguishing between all these different types of drinks would infuriate small businesses or the Retail Council or any of those business advocacy groups. However, we consumers? Guess we're just docile and compliant dupes who will happily put up with anything.

So my crazy, unhealthy indulgence of soda water with a twist of lime or grapefruit flavoring, or Perrier or Pellegrino is considered without any merit and not a healthier alternative to Coke?

I don't buy bottled water, so I haven't checked, but I wouldn't be surprised if it also had PST added to it as well. (Editor’s Note: We checked, it’s taxed!)

A case could be made that all those plastic water bottles are completely unnecessary, but unlike other provinces that actually distinguish between products they don't want to encourage versus better alternatives, apparently BC feels that it would be too much work to program that information into inventory and check-out systems. BC no doubt figured it's much easier just to slap it on everything and no one will notice anyway. Or if we do and complain, we’ll be told “it's not an extra surcharge actually, it's just PST, you know, you've been paying GST on these things forever, so what's a little more... and just ignore our initial press releases that implied it was a health measure. It's just a tax measure.”

It's this endless nickel and dime-ing everywhere.

In another instance, thanks to our fair city for imposing multiple surcharges for bags and cups we have to check in case it's being improperly applied, which it often is. At McDonald's at Davie and Bidwell we saw endless problems with extra cup charges for their summer drink days. For probably a year or so they wouldn't even let you bring your own cup, though they didn't have to go anywhere near it as it's a self-serve soda dispensary. But they'd charge you to take one of theirs. And recently, if you bring a cup they might tell you "oh no you can't bring a disposable cup, you have to bring a sturdy reusable plastic or metal one"

You mean even if I want to reuse this Pepsi cup I got at Costco you've decided that it's inappropriate, that I shouldn't reuse it, that I should just throw it in the trash now?

This is seriously becoming crazy town.

In another instance, a restaurant on Denman happily charges $.30 for a bag not asked for, nor received even. But an automatic charge is still made. In this instance it's $.30 and don’t bother asking: "why are you charging.$.30 for a bag I didn't want when the city charge is actually 15 cents?"

Crickets! So now we have to double check everywhere in case we are being improperly charged.

Here’s another example, but with the federal government's new taxes. I recently ordered something from eBay after not doing so in years, and came across a recent change from the CRA to collect federal sales taxes on all sales items. That includes anything used, collectible, etc. Fine, okay we'll suck it up: you buy something used or collectible even though it might have been sold numerous times, the government is going to want its little cut every time it changes hands. I guess at some point the tax collected can be more than the actual cost of the item.

Obviously eBay doesn't know the difference between federal sales taxes and provincial ones, as they dutifully add GST and PST to every item from every province. The new directive actually is for GST and HST if it's applicable in a specific province like Ontario.

Here in BC, Alberta and seven other provinces they don't have a Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) agreement with the federal government, which is the only kind of federal tax they would be able to collect on a province’s behalf. So every province that doesn't have one is now being improperly taxed and they also add it to shipping, which only applies in Ontario and the other HST provinces, which add that to shipping. BC and others don't charge it on shipping.

But now the feds are being sent all these taxes and I wonder do they even bother trying to send this to the provinces? And if they tried sending it to Alberta, which doesn't have a provincial sales tax, would Danielle Smith send the check back out of principal?

Oh and value added taxes like the GST and HST are passed along transaction by transaction until they reach the final end of the supply chain. They’re not supposed to be charged multiple times. But in this case they are, and even charged multiple times in provinces that don't even have an HST.

So in the case of shipping by sellers, eBay takes the 15 percent from everyone across the country who sells something, and then that same seller when they go to ship that item, if they happen to live in Ontario, pays that same HST at the post office. So ultimately the consumer has paid 30 percent tax on shipping. Pretty nifty eh?

Oh, the irony when the fed's now propose anti-inflationary measures to help Canadians through tough times, for rent and all the inflationary challenges. I bet all these new charges, incorrectly applied, would even pay for these initiatives, which make the government look like it cares, when in actuality it's just taking with one hand and then giving back with the other.

Good press though right?

Anyways, apologies, I had to vent as this is becoming increasingly ridiculous and frustrating. Most especially when Canadians are already dealing with increasingly high prices. I noted at Costco recently that the 12-pack of Bubble was $7.50 only a few months ago and is now $9.50.

Oh and of course GST and now PST will be added at the register. Thanks a lot guys.

Stephen Wahl, a real estate agent with Oakland Realty has lived in the West End for over 30 years. He is the administrator at the Facebook Groups The West Enders and WEgift! Facebook pages.