Group calling for no tax on digital downloads
Posted Jun 16, 2014 09:00:38 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
There’s a call to get rid of sales tax on digitally downloaded movies, TV shows and music.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation says it’s unfair that Canadian providers of digital entertainment are required to charge G-S-T or H-S-T, while their American competitors are not.
The federation says in provinces that have merged their sales taxes with the G-S-T, the additional cost is as high as 15 per cent.
In a submission to the federal government, the group says American providers like Netflix and iTunes have an unfair competitive advantage.
Federation spokesman Gregory Thomas used an example of a hypothetical situation where Canadian Tire had to charge sales tax but not Wal-Mart or Costco.
He says Canadian Tire would go out of business, which is what he warns will happen to Canada’s providers of digital entertainment unless the playing field is levelled.
