Hi folks,

Well, I'm back! Had a great 2 weeks away over Christmas and didn't find the weather too cold at all.

My family kept telling me not to forget to claim my tax back on everything I had brought. Has anyone done this? Where do I find the information I need?

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and new year. Happy 2010!!

Since it's you, I didn't expect you to think of googling it.

http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pbg/gf/gst176/

You're welcome.

One of that nice Mr Harpers first things he did on becoming PM was to abolish the GST rebate for tourists. So you kept your receipts for nothing.....

Ah. It turns out that's true.

http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pbg/gf/gst176/gst176-07e.pdf

Who knew?

so are you saying she doesn't get a refund???

Ax is right. No more refunds. Since March 2007.

well honestly l can't say I am surprised ... I am proud to say Harper never got my vote, neither did Mulroney!

Really? Gutted OP...

In Ontario you can apply to get the PST back now if you're a tourist. However it has to be done from inside Ontario. Or is it that in certain stores you just don't pay the PST in the first place, I'm not sure. But there is a PST exemption/refund process for the province.

Oh no here's the details.
http://www.rev.gov.on.ca/en/refund/visitor/

So as long as the goods where all removed from Ontario within 30 days, and the PST was greater than $50 on each item, you can claim it back.

I knew this

I did claim once years ago and got a cheque for a small amount most of which was eaten up in bank charges so not worth the effort

This so called refund is not all that useful. Ontario is not doing the tourist any favours. For the PST to be 50 dollars per item would mean the purchase was in the vicinity of 600 dollars or more.

An expensive fur coat? a diamond ring?

If one can afford that sort of purchase then claiming back PST is the least of one's problems.

Why is this such a bad thing? If residents should pay it, why shouldn't tourists?

Does England refund the VAT to tourists, does the US refund its sales tax, does any other country in the world? Why the big issue?

Well England did and may still do so.

In 1999 I spent 6 months over there, kept all my bills, at Heathrow on my return handed in my form, and a month later got a cheque less a small handling fee which was deducted.

There was not much money involved but at least I wasn't getting soaked for the UK VAT.

Good news, we from Canada will still get our UK VAT money back as we are not on their banned country list

see link

http://www.london-guides.co.uk/pages.php?id=e0701050

Yes, you can buy goods VAT free if you are a tourist taking them back.