By George Jamieson

I am voting to keep the HST.  I think you should too, if you fit one of these descriptions:  

1.   You own or operate a small or medium business, and the gain on the bottom line will help you respond to economic tough times.     

2.   You work for a small or medium business, and the gain on the bottom line will help you keep your job, get a promotion, or find another job in your industry. 

3.   Someone you know works for a small or medium business, and you care about their job security or employment prospects.    

Disclosure: My wife owns and operates a (very) small business, not our main income. I keep the books. Tax rules don't make or break this little company -- the impact is barely 3 figures. But it's absolutely true, the GST was good for us, and the HST is better.

Politics:  I dislike the way the HST was introduced.  It was arrogant and deceitful.   Most of the politicians who did it are still in office.  They have not yet been held to account. 

However, I won't punish them by voting against the HST. That would hurt me more than it hurts them.  In fact, it would give them an easy out.   

If we vote down the HST, they will wash their hands of it.  Then they'll deliver the get-out-of-jail slogans that politicians find so useful. Minister Tweedledum will say, "let's move on."  Minister Tweedledee will reply, "time to turn the page."  

Not a whisper of apology. Not a word of atonement.  The way they talk, you'd think they had nothing to do with the shambles of a sales job.  

And as they get away, taxpayers will be on the hook for two huge payments. First we refund to the federal government, the money it contributed to change the tax system. Then we pay the total cost of switching back to the PST. More than a billion dollars that we will never, never get back. Not one penny of it will help a small business or an employee.

A billion bucks and more to scrap the tax and keep the politicians?  I don't like that trade-off.  Let's judge the HST on its merits. If you want to settle a score with politicians, there will be another time, another way. (Who knows, if you choose another way, you might eventually hear that apology.)

About the promise to cut the HST rate over the next three years: One cut will certainly come after an election, perhaps both. When a politician makes a promise that only kicks in after he or she gets re-elected, I tune out the flim-flam.  

The Merits:  We generally agree, HST rules are good for businesses.  The gain is not simply 7%. It can be much higher or lower, depending on sales and profits. The percentage will be higher for businesses that are struggling. A full refund of sales tax gives more help to a company with a small profit, or a loss.  

Don't take my word for this. And don't take the word of someone who has a political reason to be against the HST. Ask someone who does the math and files tax returns for a business. Ask someone who reads balance sheets and meets a payroll.

If you're comfortable making spreadsheets, compare the effects of both tax systems on a wholesale cost of 100 dollars, with markups of 10%, 50%, 100%, and 200%. (When I do that, the company with the lowest markup gains 233%.  The company with the highest markup gains 3.6%.  Major diff.)

We also generally agree, the HST makes consumers pay more for goods or services that used to be exempt from PST.  But the total difference is always below 7%, and it can be a lot lower.  Beware of companies that jack up their prices across the board and blame the new tax for every penny of increase. This has happened before. (Hello, major cinema chain.  I haven't forgotten you.) 

The tax has been in place for almost a year.  If you're going to pay the "average" increase of 350 dollars, you had to spend 5,000 dollars on things that were PST-exempt.  Just under a hundred dollars a week. If that's average, my family is happy to be far below the mark.  

Do you know how much you actually spent last year on purchases that used to be free of provincial sales tax? Is the price so high that you'll be better off paying your share of a billion dollars-plus to bring back the PST?

I don't want to pay that huge bill to get back at politicians who were incompetent, or dishonest, or both when they introduced the HST. And I don't want to roll back a tax that is better for most citizens, compared to what it replaces. 

I hope every vote in this referendum is an informed vote. Ask the person who files tax returns for a small business what the HST means. Ask your friends in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, if they or their employers would like to scrap the HST, and bring back the provincial taxes they had before.  

Whichever tax we vote for, we will pay it, and pay it, and pay it.  Get the best deal for yourself, your family, and your economy.