Small business owner slams Liberal GST exemption plan as a 'waste of time'
Health store owner Alan Lapp demands real tax relief, calling for an end to the carbon tax that inflates prices on all goods and criticizing the superficial temporary GST relief offered to Canadians as pointless.
As Finance Minister Freeland resigned on Monday, December 16, she seemed to infer that this Liberal 'GST holiday' was just a costly political gimmick, while Prime Minister Justin Trudeau claimed it was giving Canadians a tax break.
The two-month tax exemption on things like prepared goods, restaurant and take-out food, kids' clothes and toys, and certain alcohol, has become a disaster for small businesses, who have been forced to change their point-of-sale systems and attempt to navigate what is – and is not – exempt under the wishy-washy criteria.
Alan Lapp, owner of TNS Health Store in Cobourg, Ont. explains the burden of manually adjusting pricing systems for over 1,200 products. The confusion surrounding which items qualify — such as protein bars or chips — adds to the frustration.
Lapp says that this short-term fix doesn’t address the real issue: high taxes and the looming carbon tax hike that will come on April 1, 2025. "Shoppers aren’t really going to change their spending habits, they’re just going to have less money because of all the taxes we’re paying in other areas," he details.
"Rather than put the burden of savings on the businesses, it should be a tax credit that people submit at the end of the year — or why don’t just charge less tax or abolish the tax on carbon?" wonders Lapp.
The carbon tax has a huge effect on the price of all foods because it has to do with fuel costs ,and that’s what transport trucks use to bring products across Canada or from even farther places than that. So all those input costs, the rise in fuel costs, drive up the cost of everything for everyone, so the tax burden is what needs to be addressed.
Ultimately, Lapp argues that while people want lower taxes and essential costs, the rising fuel prices and carbon tax will continue to drive up expenses. He calls for long-term solutions like carbon tax relief to support small businesses and consumers alike.
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Bruce Atchison commented 2024-12-19 22:41:37 -0500Trudeau is like a space alien who has zero understanding of economies and even how us non privileged folks must live. How I despise that spoiled brat. I wish he hadn’t been born and December 25th, 1971 was just another Christmas Day. How better off Canada would have been if that baby with the suspicious parentage hadn’t been conceived.
