http://www.melissaprimm.com/islands-for-sale-quebec/
Why are provincial sales taxes so high in Prince Edward Island?
I notice PEI has a GST+PST tax of 15.5%, which is higher than Quebec even.
Do PEI locals agree to pay this higher sales taxrate? Is this money to assist the local fisheries who have been hard hit by globalization?
Also, would it be more effective for PEI to implement a provincial progressive income tax to then be able to lower the provincial sales tax?
PEI may have one of the highest provincial tax rate but the Island does not have the harmonized sales tax that most of the other provinces do(and PEI was recently promised by premier Robert Ghiz that he’s definitely not planning on harmonizing our taxes during his term)… PEI is exempt from both tax on groceries(milk, eggs, bread, cans, vegetables, meat etc).. and exempt from PST on clothing, footwear, baby items and a lot more.. ( http://www.gov.pe.ca/photos/original/pt_rtn113.pdf )..
NB, NS, NFLD and soon BC and ON.. all have HST which is PST and GST combined.. and they are not exempt from PST on items.. take Nova Scotia for example: it has a current PST of 8% and a GST of 5%.. with a combined HST of 13% that they pay on basically everything.. I often go shopping on the mainland and I hate getting hit by the extra 8% tax that I don’t pay on PEI for clothing… but as of July 1st, NS’s combined HST is to rise to 15%.. so they will soon be the highest taxed province.
I don’t mind paying the little extra PST.. I’m just really glad that PEI doesn’t have HST because I think that is way worse. The PST collected is used to take care of the province.. provide services for Islanders etc.. basically everything the answerer above me said.
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