Re: How are you coping with HST?

I am curious about the mindset other fellow Rupertites have toward the HST.

Personally, I am decreasing my spending immediately as the economy has hit me particularly hard. I have decreased spending on anything but the basics because I can forecast my budget for two months and I see another $75 per month, at the very least, lost to HST. That isn’t including vehicle gas, incidental purchases, impulse-buying and who-knows-what-cost on items I buy while I am grociery shopping e.g.: non-food items like a candle or kitchenware.

Quite honestly, that’s a phone/internet payment…

Whereas I have always tried to dine out at local resteraunts to support them in the past, combined with the HST and the job situation in PR, I just can’t justify it anymore.

What is your position?

I raised my prices by 20 percent.

I don’t spend a lot of money on take out food, i’d rather make a failed attempt at cooking, just the regular spending for me, movies, groceries, trip to the corner store from time to time for some goodies for the kids, haven’t really noticed any difference.

A little info on Fight the HST…
http://www.theprovince.com/business/Fight+launches+court+action+have+declared+unconstitutional/3237674/3237679.bin

The Fight HST group that launched the anti-HST petition drive is going to court. Former Premier Bill Vander Zalm said the group is launching an action to have the HST declared unconstitutional.

Read More by Clicking This Link…

So far hst has cost me about .50 cents so far since the 1st

They had ‘provincial tobacco taxes’ instead of PST and ‘federal tobacco taxes’ instead of GST. So now there’s HST on top.
Smokes are up 72c - $1.08 a pack here.

Spent hours trying to find out how to change my Simply. Invoices print GST and show the HST, print PST but there’s no figure. Trying to get it to show HST instead of GST and no PST line at all…

It took me just under 3 hours to switch over HST in our system (We use Quickbooks) it was actually nice to have a bit of a challenge for my brain  :wink:

When we start our home renos HST may become a pain the a$$ because we’ll have to hire contractors for the electrical/plumbing/wall moving bit.  But for everyday purchases HST doesnt bother me much. I will still spend the same as I always have.

The nickel and dime stuff will not be noticed.  When we have to pay large sums for renovations or some other item that had not been previously taxed then we will notice.

However, I have been affected by the HST in a different way.  I am still unclear how the HST is supposed to help us.  Consumers pay more taxes, corporations pay less with the carrot that prices will go down or jobs will be increased or something.

We are supposed to accept this at face value from governments that we trust less and less.  I don’t think I have ever felt as cynical as I do about the state of democracy.  The government says one thing during an election campaign, changes its mind days later, and pushes through legislation against the obvious wishes of an irate population, making very little effort to explain themselves.  Just trust us. 

Sickens and saddens me.

Agreed.  Sickening indeed!
I did not vote for the Liberals in the last election.  I suspect that many voters will remember July 2010 (implementation of the HST) when the next provincial general election rolls around in 2013.  The Liberals are hoping that voters will forget their deception.  I think democracy is alive and very healthy in BC.  This government is in power until the voters of BC decide to throw them out of office.  Voters in BC are slow to anger, but, I think the HST has struck a nerve.  

Anti HST campaigners are now trying to get the tax overthrown simply because it hasn’t become law. And hasn’t been voted on by the public or been put through legislature.

Evil liberal scum…

As a contract admin for a larger company… Fuck you for using simply accounting.

I’m sure its fine in small installations but once you are in a client/server environment with more than 2 users it sure likes to puke.

Their support is rad too. Oh the connection manager stopped running and won’t start? Hrm let me see. Oh you are right it won’t. 4 houras later ‘I’m going to escalate this issue’. 30 min later we can’t figure it out… Click.

I’ve worked with the ‘enterprise version’ of quickbooks. Works well… Fuck simply accounting. Shit software.

I wish I had your optimism.  My cynicism says that the people will forget.  Most of us won’t notice that we are being nickeled and dimed to death.

People are not voting and here is a perfect example of why.  Once the government is formed it doesn’t matter what the population thinks.  It is full steam ahead for the powerful and arrogant.

And yes I am talking about the Liberals here but it is true of most political parties.  Once in power, the agenda takes over and it doesn’t matter what anybody else thinks.

One of my kids once innocently asked “Aren’t governments supposed to do what the people want.”  I think it had something to do with a moral issue like abortion or drug laws but it could refer to any issue.

His point was that a leader/political party shouldn’t necessarily have an agenda that will be imposed just because they got 50% of the 50% of the people who voted.  Good government seeks compromise.  Good government will listen to the people on all spots of the political spectrum and find ways to ensure that all are represented.  The HST debacle has shown that this government does not believe in that principle.

As I have said before, I am not an economist and I have no idea if this tax will be good for the province or not.  But watching the tax be imposed despite the opposition, despite the lack of information says way more about the state of affairs than the tax itself.       

Absolutely.  The Liberals lack the moral authority to lead.  They could have taken the high road and laid out their plans before the election, but, they chose to hide the truth.  I have faith in the people of BC and the principles of democracy.  It is up to the voters.
People will start to wake up to the impact of the HST when they pay for big ticket items like home renovations.

Simply does more than what we need it for, haven’t even implemented some features. It’s what most bookkeepers and CGAs use around here, I just got stuck with it.
I’m not a bean counter
I don’t want to be one
I’m pissed at having to even learn it.

Ok maybe i was a bit harsh :wink: but I just finished dealing with 3 very unhappy accountants regarding how simply is so unstable… and how it was so much better before I moved the data from the head accountants computers to a ‘server’.  Of course it has nothing to do with the two additional people accessing the database… or the fact that a simply accounting update was just done.

Are you running it on Windows2003 or later server? Last time I had that problem Simply Support Reps were successful at fixing it with the reason given being: Programs authenticating over the network used to simply authenticate using a username/password but in Windows2003 Server the network service(as well as other services in Windows) for Simply authenticates as a service, not a user account which causes connection issues. THIS fixed it in my case.

Nope no authentication issues. The connection manager service just wouldnt start. It’d time out for no reason. XP pro ‘server’ running in a virtual machine… Theres no windows servers in this building. Even the domain controllers are linux  :sunglasses:  No sense purchasing an actual ‘server’ OS license from microsoft.

Tried uninstalling/reinstalling the connection manager and after the 4th time it started fine.  Service runs as local system.

[quote=“jesus”]
Nope no authentication issues.

Tried uninstalling/reinstalling the connection manager and after the 4th time it started fine.  Service runs as local system. [/quote]

Ouch. That’s random. Well. I’m paying HST on my ADSL line so I better slow down my posting.  :laughing:

HST is just another example where the hardworking people suffer, and those with a lot of money just benefit more…it’s just the way it is, and doubtfully changing any time soon. Total collapse of a system.

You know it’s a matter of degree right. When you analyze the cumulative effect of paying GST/PST in the first place and then compounding HST affectual tax on items not previously taxed it can add up - which is what most people opposed to the new tax are upset by (I am assuming here).

The other option is a tax revolt. I mean really, what is left for a population left powerless to their elected government? Quite a portion of people are pushed even further into poverty because of the compounded affect of tax.