So, in 24 hours it has gone from being the best thing for the economy since sliced bread, according to Campbell to being “Combining PST and GST will be a beneficial act for *SOME* small business owners and will, *IN SOME CASES*, ease the burden of too much paperwork." Those other than those SOME and in "ALL THE REST OF THE CASES" it will not benefit and will increase the burden. Still, as Bell says, "The price of housing will go up" as a consequence.

Incidentally, for most working people the fact that BC has the most expensive housing in Canada is nothing to boast about, exactly the opposite.

I built a house a couple of years ago, did not even apply for the GST rebate, too much hassle.

I'm sure there will be some last minute concessions put in to try and keep the lower mainland's house flipping economy bubbling away. Bubble. Bubble. Bubble.

What I would like to know is, where were the NDP when this happened?

I can understand the liberals not bringing it to the public's attention, because they are crooks, liberal only in taxing and spending, but the freaking opposition have a duty to let the public know these things.

I hate our two party system in BC, both are completely crooked, and we just can't get rid of them! When one party disappears, they dissolve and reform into the same ugly party under a different name.

Alberta looks better and better every month. Sure, they're a one party system, but at least they're honest about it and don't just run around with two choices for the same mandate, and for being part of a fiefdom you at least get some benefit. There is no benefit or advantage to living in BC any more. We have zero jobs, and the highest taxes in the country.

Our MLA is NDP here, I wrote them and told them that I and my family will be voting Green Party, not because I like them, but because I can't ethically vote for either the NDP, or the Social Credit / Liberal party ever again for refusing to stand up for working class people yet again.

The NDP are the "Look what they're doing to us now" party, the Liberals are the mafia.

But wait, the recession is over, some prick who's never had a blue collar job in their life said so.

"Incidentally, for most working people the fact that BC has the most expensive housing in Canada is nothing to boast about, exactly the opposite."

B.C. is a very desirable place to work, live and retire.

That is why house prices are high.

Apparently we are all made of money.

I recently bought a house in April and my first day in my new house I received an $8000 fine in the mail by the BC government for purchasing a house. I used a lawyer to do all the legal work for my home purchase (next time I'll do it myself and use a notary), but if your lawyer %$@*'s up the paper work its you the home owner that pays the fine, and not the legal profession that is supposed to provide professional services to protect you from this kind of liability. The lawyer claims everything was done correctly in his dealings with the government, but the government claims no responsibility for the inaccuracy of their own data base.

Again the government has no accountability for the problems they themselves create and even when you follow the due process they set out... you are still liable for the bureaucracies own omissions. After my experience I don't believe for one minute that the BC government care about a housing industry...as soon as nowbody is looking they are twisting the knife into someones back to squeeze as much revenue for their racket as they can.

I plan to sell in one year once I meet the capital gains exemption period and seriously plan on leaving the province to a place where a person can get ahead in life. Most likely to either Whitehorse or the Southern Alberta area. BC is a tax and gouge jurisdiction to support the lower mainland good times... rural BC is nothing more than a revenue source to be harvested by a lower mainland based bureaucracy IMO.

Eagleone,

what was the $8,000 fine for?????

They have absolutely lost their minds if they expect people to pay that sort of a tax. I don't understand why on earth the government would do that to the housing economy, seeing as housing is one of the staples of a healthy economy, as you can attest to by checking out what's happening in the U.S.

In PG it will nail the coffin shut on the new homes market using a rotten pine tree as the hammer.

And most of BC voted for this? Guess the Liberals waited until they were back in power to force this on all of us? Maybe it's Gordo's plan to pay for the olympics, eh?

How can all of BC'ers get together to stop this kind of thing?

BC gets 1.6 Billion from the Feds to go HST(Hooker Sales Tax ) but the Feds will get this back from us many times over, a Tax grab it is nothing else.
Eagleone please explain what the 8000 Dollar Fine was, so we will know how to avoid it.

When I was 18 my dad bought a trailer for me and all I had to do was start making the payments on it. It was a run down piece of crap I didn't even want, but it was on property so it was good at the time. We were both on the mortgage and title. I lived there for 6-years, and then gave it to my brother in the late 90's when my business I had at the time, that was based on the housing market, suffered. I never signed any paper work that I can remember from back then to transfer any property and didn't much care about it, because I was essentially broke and homeless and to depressed to give a rats ass about it.

It took me till essentially this year before I recovered enough to buy a real house after completing a university degree and finally getting some real work (although not related to my degree).

When I bought the house I told the lawyer about the trailer and asked him if it disqualifies me from a first time home owners break on the property transfer tax. For three weeks we went back and forth with me giving him all the information like the address of the trailer and when I lived there and who was on the title ect ect... I didn't know the law for buying a house, so I was relying on his professional advice. I didn't know if a first time home transfer tax break had been applied to the trailer, as it was a joint ownership from 15-years ago, and it was a trailer and not a house... I had no paper work to find out and wanted my lawyer to contact the government agency responsible to find out if I qualified. My realestate agent said as long as you haven't been a home owner for five years you are eligable regardless. I had mentioned that if I didn't qualify I wasn't sure I would go ahead with the purchase as my hours at work were being reduced.

The lawyer claims he did a search with the land titles office and the ministry of small business and revenue and they came back saying I was still eligible for a first time home owners grant. The lawyer at HSJ then did the paper work for me to sign, and I signed it completely oblivious to any potential liability.

Three days later in my first day moving into my new house (my first house) I got mail from the ministry of revenue with an $8000 fine for not paying my property transfer tax. I paid the tax, but not the fine. I told the lawyer about this and he did another inquiry with them and they came back and said I was still eligible as per the search he did. Apparently another computer they use says I wasn't eligible, but only ministry staff have access to that data base and the information isn't available to the public. So essentially the government said to bad you have to pay the fine, and the lawyer had an outfit called the Lawyers Insurance Fund contact me to say he has no liability in the matter because its the governments data base that is flawed.

Bottom line is I played by the rules through the due process and made all information available from my end, but got an $8000 fine because the government right hand doesn't know what its left hand is doing and thats supposed to be my responsibility.

So, you bought a $800,000 house? Property transfer tax on a second property is 1%? Why if you buy such a nice piece of land do you bitch about everything? I hope you don't drink, Alberta just put a 30% tax on booze

Yeah, so...you let them take you to court and you explain your side of it...sounds like you have a winninig case if the government messed up.

It is not plausible to think that anyone can sell, trade, or even give real estate property away without some kind of legal process such as a contract, etc. To do so without one is just plain stupid and naive. Sorry but your claim to not know the law about buying a house or a chattle property has no merit.

The house was $280,000. 1% on the first $200, and 2% on everything after that. The penalty fine is twice the property tax plus accumulating interest. In this case I am taking the government and the lawyer to court... still waiting for the court date to be set.

The trailer was given to my brother for take over payments over a decade ago, but I didn't have to sign anything because it was in my dads name. I fully disclosed everything about the trailer including its address and when I lived there to the lawyer when I bought the house nearly a dozen years later. What I clearly asked for from the lawyer was if I was eligible to make the claim as I considered it my first house and wanted to know if the law did as well. We had communication on this over three weeks. I was working 70-hour weeks and relied on the lawyer to do the paper work. He mailed me copies of his search results and they came up negative. The lawyer said I met the requirements for the first time homeowners exemption. The lawyer said I was eligible for the tax credit after doing his due diligence that I paid him for. To close a deal they should not be able to give wrong advice on a matter they should clearly understand. The same government office that gave the negative search results was the office that issued the fine only 3-days later. A person should have a right to ask these questions before hand and expect to get an honest answer in return. If they can issue the fine the day you move in, then they can give a clear yes or no at the time the questions are asked prior to signing the papers... not a bait and switch with an $8000 fine.

What irks me is that a poacher or crack dealer will see a smaller fine than this outrageous money grab. I guess its harder to collect from a poacher or crack head than it is from a guy that owns a house.....

If they can mess up a simple property tax data base inquiry with such catastrophic results, then I'd hate to see what they will leave people liable for with this complicated HST rebate scheme they are now proposing. Honestly I don't trust them to work in anybodies interest but their own (being revenue collection for outrageous compensation packages)... its legalized extortion run by criminals IMO. Acting in good faith within the due process system in place means nothing to these people.

The rest will be discussed in court.

The Liberal Government was fully aware that it was going to the Harmonized tax before the last election, however during the election they dodged the issue. After the election ****WHAMOO****.

Apparently the Liberal Government stands to get $1.6 Billion from the Federal Government if it goes to the HST. This money will be paid to the Province with no strings attached. Now does it make sense as to why they are going for it?????

Anyone who is upset about this move to the HST should write a letter to Gordon Campbell, copy to Colin Hansen, and Copy to your local MLA. Their email addresses are all on the internet. Just look up Governmet of BC and go from there.

The calculations by politicians and their analysts is that for every one (1) letter they receive complaining about an issue there are approx 200 others who feel the same way but havent written a letter. If they receive enough letters, at least they will know that they will not get a free ride in the next election.

Because of the high cost of the stupid Olympics, the recession, loss of revenue from gaming, etc; the Government will do whatever it can to get some extra money.

Who cares what it does to you the taxpayers. Certainly not the Liberals, NDP, or all the high paids people who run Government entities, such as Universitys, Ferry Corp. BC Hydro, Aiport Authoritys, BC Transit, BCTC, Worksafe BC, ICBC, etc; etc; etc;. These people make so much money, they dont live on the same planet as the rest of us.

One possible growth industry in BC would be the building of troughs, because there is not enough space for all those presently feeding.

If people are not prepared to go the extra step and write a letter to their MLA etc;, then they deserve the Government they get.

The following link is to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation in case anyone wishes to join it.

http://www.taxpayer.com/taxpayer/home1

The following article was written by Maureen Bader who is the B.C. director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

Maureen Bader: Spiraling bureaucrat salaries abuse B.C. taxpayers

B.C. provincial and municipal governments recently released their 2008 public sector compensation reports, demonstrating just why taxpayers need more transparent government. Removing the veil of salary secrecy clearly showed that public sector salaries have skyrocketed to levels beyond taxpayers’ ability to pay.

The salary revelations were riddled with examples of taxpayer abuse. At the provincial level, pay packages for BC Rail brass are the most blatant examples. Four people make over $100,000 per year to run a 40-kilometer-long railway. BC Rail's CEO made a $275,000 base salary in 2008 but with perks, including a bonus, made $494,182. The government took a strong stand recently and stopped paying his golf club membership. If that's the government's idea of cost cutting, taxpayers are in big trouble.

Municipal employees appear to be doing what they can to hit the pay jackpot as well. Employees making more than $100,000 per year in the District of West Vancouver offices rose from 134 in 2007 to 161 in 2008. Interestingly, in 2000, West Vancouver had only 41 employees paid more than $75,000. This trend can be found in municipalities all over the province.

B.C. taxpayers are being saddled with a public sector wage burden far in excess of their ability to fund it. In B.C. average annual salaries are only $42,000, and average family incomes are about $85,000. The burden on taxpayers will be even greater in the future because of the pension liability these higher salaries create for our children and grandchildren.

How does government justify such a costly public sector?

Our political leaders bleat that because government handles multi-million dollar budgets, taxpayers need to attract the best and the brightest to government. That claim, however, is lame.

Bureaucrats might handle multi-million dollar budgets, but they only have to find a way to spend them, not how to fund them. Government revenue comes from taxation, and taxpayers have to pay taxes whether they want what the government provides or not. In the private sector, entrepreneurs have to produce something that people will freely choose to buy. If consumers choose not to buy, entrepreneurs go out of business because they won't generate enough revenue to cover their costs. In contrast, the B.C. government can pay half a million dollars to a CEO to run a 40-kilometer-long railroad and not pay a financial penalty for it. The penalty is paid by taxpayers.

Even worse, when the government competes for scarce labour resources, it forces up labour costs and the taxes to pay for them. This makes it more difficult for entrepreneurs to compete in the labour market and find people with the skills to help them survive.

It should come as no surprise that our governing class has lost touch with taxpayers' ability to fund these pay bonanzas. B.C. politicians gave themselves a 30 per cent pay increase and brought back gold-plated pensions for themselves, so have little moral authority to hold down the excessive pay and perk demands of public sector workers, at any level of the bureaucracy.

Bureaucrat salaries have spiraled far beyond the incomes of taxpayers. While the government should be commended for greater transparency, it must now become accountable to those left to pick up the tab for out-of-control salaries. Public sector salaries must be brought in line with taxpayers’ ability to pay.

http://www.taxpayer.com/taxpayer/news-archive?news_id=3552

Ah well eagle, sorry to see you in such a predicament.

Just finished sending my letter to Campbell, Hansen, and Bell. Did anyone else make an effort??????????

Will the GST rebate disappear now?

I did, Palopu.

Palopu makes a very good point. If we spent as much energy contacting our MLAs and Ministries as we do bitching and complaining on this and other forums, mabye, just maybe, they might listen to us a little more.

My letter to Campbell, Hansen and Bond has been sent. I was as politically correct as I could possibly be under such circumstances.

The new tax should have been tabled in the house before the public!
we should have been given the chance to include other interested parties other than business,
its worth noting that they the govt also had every opportunity to keep the existing exclusions on goods and services but chose not to, busines will benefit.. so they tell us,
much how the rest of us will manage when we cant afford to partake of such services, it seems a real shot in the arm to the underground economy
is there a way to stop this?? we should all be scared... never mind your political stripes this goes far beyond that