Paul Bellows: Pop and Style
How about 1% better service?
Posted Nov 8, 11:59 AM by Paul Bellows
In Canada we have a beloved tax called the Good and Services Tax, or the GST. They collect a 6% levy on all business transactions, which Dave and I pay faithfully.
The current federal administration is planning to lower the GST to 5% which would be the second such reduction in this least popular of all Canadian taxes. However, I suggest to Prime Minister Harper that he keep the GST at 6% and invest it directly into the operational efficiency of the GST collection department itself.
We filed and paid our GST in full and on time this past year (as always) – despite the department losing our first set of paperwork. We eventually received confirmation that our GST payment had been received and they cashed our cheque. However it wasn’t until 6 months later that we received a notice that our payment had finally been transferred from their receivables account and applied against what had become in the meantime our overdue account. Now the diligent GST department has decided to charge us interest on the overdue amount, which according to their own records they were holding all the time.
Rather than what amounts to approximately a 17% reduction in the GST, I would prefer a 17% increase in operational efficiency so that Dave can spend less time on the phone trying to understand why we’re paying interest to Ottawa to hold onto our money for us.
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