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harmonized sales tax
DCHP-2 (Jun 2016)
Spelling variants:Harmonized Sales Tax, HST
n. — Finance, Administration
a value-added tax that combines the provincial sales tax (PST) and the federal goods and services tax (GST).
Type: 1. Origin — This tax was first introduced in 1996 in New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Nova Scotia and in 2010 in Ontario and British Columbia. In 2013, HST was eliminated in BC after a referendum (see the 2011 quotation), while PEI joined the HST. Chart 1 shows that Harmonized Sales Tax is overwhelmingly more frequent in Canada than abroad. Instances of the term in the US usually occur in discussions of the Canadian tax. See also the Maple Leaf Web reference.
See also COD-2, which labels the term "Cdn".
See also COD-2, which labels the term "Cdn".
The initialism HST is the preferred term.
Quotations
1989
If your self-employment income results in your collecting more than $1,500 in GST/HST (harmonized sales tax in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland) during the year, you will be required to make quarterly remittances of these taxes.
1989
The upcoming meeting of first ministers on Nov. 9 is a strategic opportunity for Prime Minister Brian Mulroney to bring all the parties together on a simple, harmonized sales tax system.
1993
A senior finance department official argues that if Quebec, the most independent of the provinces, is living happily with a harmonized sales tax, the other provinces should be reassured that harmonization is not such a bad thing.
1996
Sales tax rates will fall in Atlantic Canada on April 1, but the harmonized sales tax will be applied to more goods and services.
2008
New Brunswick's adoption of the Harmonized Sales Tax is one reason its cities are so competitive, said Wiebe.
2009
The budget also proposes a tax reform package that includes moving to a Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) on July 1, 2010. Ontarians will pay a single 13 per cent sales tax with most households receiving one-time $1,000 payments, starting next year, and personal income tax cuts to ease the transition.
2009
British Columbia will adopt a 12% harmonized sales tax next July, a move that will save businesses $1.9 billion, the provincial government announced yesterday.
The tax will combine the 5% federal goods and services tax with the province's 7% provincial sales tax.
2011
The government promised to drop the harmonized sales tax by March 31, 2013 following the results of the mail-in referendum on the controversial tax. The province announced the old PST and GST will return with the exemptions that had existed prior to the HST. Elections BC said 54.73 per cent in B.C. voted to scrap the HST with 45.27 per cent voting to keep it in place.
2012
The terms of the referendum where voters opted out of the HST require the province to restore the PST with the charges and exemptions that existed prior to July 2010. A panel of tax experts has been appointed to review the PST for possible administrative efficiencies when it is reinstated in the spring of 2013.
References
- Maple Leaf Web • "Harmonized Sales Tax"
- COD-2
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