Editor, The Record:
Many proponents of the HST and other taxes added to the retail price of goods and services should look back 30 years when the sales tax of 10 per cent was calculated and included into the lower import or manufacturing price of items and then sold to wholesalers or businesses.
Then a decision was made to drop that system and instead, add a tax onto the retail price of the goods and have that tax collected from the public. That was the begining of GST, PST, HST, etc., and has now shifted the bookkeeping costs to 80,000 businesses in B.C, as well as the government agencies which have to process the tax statements.
It’s time for government and businesses to look back at the other systems in place those years ago, rather than trying to juggle the present unmanageable system which adds tax amounts on top of the retail price. It would also be great for the public to be able to purchase items in the store and actually pay the price marked, and great for all the businesses who would save a huge amount of bookkeeping and paperwork.
Let’s have some dialogue about this, and make some changes that will really impact the situation. Under the current system, imagine how many times a bookkeeping entry has to be made by all the shops selling the same item from a huge shipment? All those savings made from streamlining the system, could be put into price reductions as well as many other government services.
Lila Rauh
Mission
