New Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) as of July 1, 2010. How it will affect your brokerage services, freight and the importing of goods

News Item Entered: Thursday, May 27, 2010

Effective July 1, 2010, the provinces of British Columbia and Ontario will replace their provincial sales taxes with a single Harmonized Sales Tax (HST). The HST is already in effect in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland (at a rate of 13%) since April 1, 1997. Effective July 1, 2010 HST will be applied to taxable goods and services at a rate of 12% in British Columbia, 13% in Ontario and 15% in Nova Scotia.

The HST is a value-added tax which combines the provincial sales tax (PST) of the five participating provinces (British Columbia, Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland) with the federal Goods and Services Tax (GST).

Click here to read more on how this will affect you.