MARTIN HAVING SECOND THOUGHTS ON HST
By Adnews Staff
Finance Minister Paul Martin told a Senate committee this week that he is willing to make concessions on the 15% harmonized sales tax to benefit advertisers and broadcasters. The HST is scheduled to be implemented on April 1 in Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. East Coast business owners, Ottawa and the provinces are still arguing over details of the tax-in rules. Broadcasters say enforcing tax-in prices will hurt them in the region. National advertisers say they will pull ads from the HST provinces rather than pay to produce and broadcast separate ads showing prices with the 15% tax included. Ottawa and the provinces will likely agree to require advertisements to include disclaimers such as "HST not included." However, Martin doesn't appear to be willing to budge on the issue of in-store pricing. Regulations will require retailers to post prices that include HST, even though they will be allowed to show customers before-tax prices on tags and signs.