CBC News Indepth: Budget

CBC News Indepth: Budget

Really good overview of the budget surplus in Canada and why it tends to be good to pay down your national debt. Of course the Tories want to cut the GST (Governmental Sales Tax; federal sales tax here in Canada) eventually down to 5% from the 7% it is currently at (and just a cool thing about the GST: it doesn't apply to food and prescriptions, probably so that the poor don't get hit when buying basic necessities).

For those of you outside of Canada (which I think is my entire readership sans Meesh), Canada has the GST and then a PST (Provincial Sales Tax). The PST in Vancouver is 7%. Alberta and the territories have no PST. Some have an HST (Haromonised Sales Tax) which is combined with the GST so that people pay a single sales tax and only have to deal with federal paperwork; the province gets their cut later on. Kind of cool since it simplifies things by only having to know the governmental taxation laws.

Oh, and you can get refunds for your GST if you are from out of the country: http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/visitors/ . Looks like you can get your money back if it is for a hotel room or purchases on a single receipt that total over CA$50 and receipts all total over CA$200.