10. HST hurts families, seniors and low income people most:
The HST is a regressive tax that forces middle and lower income people to pay a greater proportion of their income to acquire the same goods and services as those with higher incomes. The HST hurts poor people the most.

9. HST is inflationary:
To avoid a decrease in the standard of living, HST paid by consumers must be charged back to employers in the form of higher wages – ultimately wiping out any benefits to business. In Europe, the VAT started at about 6% in most countries and has grown to as high as 25% in places like Denmark, Hungary and Sweden.

8. HST is economically counter-intuitive:
BC’s big resource companies get most of their money from selling goods overseas and to the United States – which is new money coming in from consumers outside BC. Exempting business from sales taxes means government is taking all of its sales tax revenues from consumers inside our economy and then transferring $2 billion of it back to corporations mostly headquartered in Europe, Asia or the U.S. That doesn’t make economic sense.

7. HST curbs consumption, reduces tax revenues and increases the tax burden:
The HST in BC will take a total of $2 billion per year out of our economy – or an average of $400 more from every man, woman and child. Reduced consumption results in reduced government tax revenues. Governments must then either cut spending, increase debt, or raise taxes. Under the HST, they will end up doing all three.

6. HST drives the economy underground:
In 2009, the Institute for Fiscal Studies produced a report that showed “leakage” from VAT evasion in the UK of between $20 billion -$30 billion per year. When the HST is evaded the government loses twice – the HST not charged, and the income not reported.

5. HST kills jobs and hurts the economy:
The provinces with the highest unemployment – Newfoundland 12.4%, Nova Scotia 9.5%, New Brunswick 9.1%, BC 8.2% and Ontario 8.1% – all have the HST. The three provinces with the lowest unemployment – Manitoba 5%, Saskatchewan 5.4% and Alberta 5.9% do not have HST. If the HST really stimulated growth – then corporate income taxes would increase to offset lost sales taxes so consumers would not have to pay more HST.

4. HST is unnecessarily complicated:
Under the HST, business accountants must track millions and millions of transactions and remittances, and file thousands of quarterly reports to government. But none of that is necessary. Simply exempting business from sales taxes would be a far simpler system than the cumbersome HST.

3. HST is revenue neutral to the BC government:
One of the biggest myths surrounding the HST is that it will help to pay for government services such as health care and education. But the HST is really a $2 billion tax transfer from the corporate sector to the consumer with no new revenues going to government.

2. HST is a loss of provincial sovereignty:
The HST gives control of BC’s sales tax authority to the Federal Government. It turns BC into the equivalent of a giant municipality, awaiting transfers of our own money back from Ottawa.

1. HST threatens democracy:
The BC Liberals want us to believe that repealing the HST will be too costly… and that’s probably true – for them. A defeat of the HST in the Referendum will change the way governments operate in BC forever. Never again will any government in BC be able to lie, obfuscate or deliberately cheat people out of their hard earned tax dollars.