News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 02, 2020
A Message to Our Readers
 9.7K     0 
News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 01, 2020
EarthCam Time-Lapse Documents Rafael Viñoly-Designed New Stanford Hospital Construction
 41K     0 
News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 01, 2020
Resort Town
 5.5K     0 

Eug said:
I'm glad they came to their senses. May as well go the next reasonable step then, and lower the HST to 12% or perhaps even 12.5%. They can keep their up front lump sum bribe.
Click to expand...

That would be worse. 5%+2%=7%. You want them to drop HST to 12% and not give any credits back? Currently you get part of the GST partial rebates so you don't pay the full 5%. I wonder if they will take that into account even.
Would kind of suck if we only get the 75% PST credit and no GST partial rebates. At 12% HST and no rebate would kill.
 
I don't think they should have put on different tax rates at different bands at all. Tax the whole amount. That would discourage speculation and encourage people to buy smaller homes (something we really need to start doing).
 
The purpose of this tax - as with every other tax - is to raise revenue. Period. The idea that the aim is to reduce speculation is unfounded, and the use of a tax as a form of social engineering (to buy smaller houses) is completely silly.

This tax will affect downtown Toronto more than any other area in the province because that is where the highest concentration of $400,000 and up properties are - and will be - located. It should be obvious that the vast majority are not luxury properties, nor are the buyers universally "rich" by any stretch. Such a tax will have a heavy affect on downtown housing geared towards attracting families to the core and the immediate area around it, and will no doubt push some to opt for the suburbs where larger homes can still be found for much lower prices.
 
kEiThZ said:
I don't think they should have put on different tax rates at different bands at all. Tax the whole amount. That would discourage speculation and encourage people to buy smaller homes (something we really need to start doing).
Click to expand...
And guarantee 8-years of Tory governments ... some pragmatism is necessary here.
 
The whole combined tax thing is ludices... Its another form of theft. Our property taxes here are already ridiculous. And now they want to give us more taxes. And Ontario has the highest tax rate in Canada... Go figure.
 
Mr.Colley said:
The whole combined tax thing is ludices... Its another form of theft. Our property taxes here are already ridiculous. And now they want to give us more taxes. And Ontario has the highest tax rate in Canada... Go figure.
Click to expand...

This tax is part of a plan to significantly cut other taxes, notably personal and corporate income taxes.

If you want taxes reduced you need to put pressure on governments to cut specific programs. I'm all for busting public sector unions, but eventually you need to make tough choices about the services you want.
 
Mr.Colley said:
The whole combined tax thing is ludices... Its another form of theft. Our property taxes here are already ridiculous. And now they want to give us more taxes. And Ontario has the highest tax rate in Canada... Go figure.
Click to expand...

Actually, Toronto's tax rate is ridiculously low. Any of the surrounding municipalities pay anywhere from 30-70% more and that's true of most other major Canadian cities. Personally, I think we all need to chill on the tax issue. We get a ton for how little we actually pay in comparison to other provinces (Alberta being an exception) and other western democracies.
 
Toronto taxes are low???? Compare a 2000 square foot house in downtown Toronto to a 2000 square foot house in Whitby.
 
I dunno if the property tax differential is relevant to this debate. The HST is going to hit homes across the province in the same way. Inside or outside the 416 is not relevant to the debate.
 
I think the argument is that a higher proportion of the new housing stock in 416 is above $400k.
 
The Ministry of Revenue issued a bulletin on the HST as it applies to new housing on June 18th. The province back-tracked and has restructured the HST as it applies to new housing. The tax structure is now a progressive tax structure with 2% being applied to the first $400,000 and 8% being applied to the incremental value above $400,000 up to a maximum rebate of $24,000 per new home. While it still represents a net tax increase, the new model is a significant improvement over what was initially proposed.

There is now also rebate available to rental housing (both investor & purpose built), seniors housing and a number of other housing types/tenures.

The province will harmonize with the federal definition of a 'substantial renovation' with rebate available there as well.

All purchase and sale agreements entered into prior to June 18th are grandfathered and there are some rather complicated transition rules that I'm not going to bother getting into in a general discussion thread with respect to the status of construction for projects that bridge the July 1, 2010 implementation date.

The federal government will now likely be under pressure to restructure the GST thresholds (which haven't been updated since 1991 to reflect new home price increases) to match the progressive structure that the province will be implementing.
 
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top