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Don't be misled about taxes

Please do not get fooled about a 10 per cent HST.I have a real hard time understanding why so many people are getting sucked in by the (bordering on fraudulent) propaganda ads being run by the B.C. government to the tune of $5 million in taxpayer funds.

Dear Editor:

The HST is not 10 per cent. It is 12 per cent, exactly the same percentage as the previously combined PST and GST. The difference is that the HST is applied to a whole lot more items and services than the PST was.

Think about this. If you buy 10 items at $10 each and paid 10 per cent HST on all ten items you have paid a total of $10 in tax.

However, if you paid five per cent GST on all 10 items and seven per cent PST on only five, which is more like it used to be, you have paid a total of $8.50 in tax.

That is still less than the HST even if they were to lower it to 10 per cent.

Their ads state to vote no for a 10 per cent HST and to vote yes to go back to the PST and GST at 12 per cent.

This is completely misleading. So be clear, if you vote no you are voting to keep the HST at its current rate of 12 per cent and then  hope they keep their promise to reduce it to 10 per cent by 2014.

To me the deception is obvious, however, I run into two or three people every day who think that if they vote to keep the HST it will immediately become 10 per cent.

Please, if you don’t care enough about you’re hard earned money to be sure you understand the truth before you vote, then please take the time to understand it for the rest of us who do.

Keith Quesnelle

Summerland