Canada’s two-month tax holiday starts on Saturday.
The federal government is slashing the five per cent HST for two months on a variety of goods. In Ontario, it means a break on the entire 13 per cent HST.
While it’s good for shoppers, businesses are feeling mixed.
At Hobby and Toy Central in Kitchener, preparing for the tax break has been a “costly nightmare.”
“I have 65,000 different items and some are going to be tax free, and some aren’t. And everybody is expecting that majority is going to be tax free,” store owner Cheryl Flood said. “[I] probably spent over $5,000 just in payroll trying to accommodate, to figure out what is tax free and not tax free.”
Ottawa estimates shoppers will save around $260 on a $2,000 basket of qualifying goods over the two-month period. Those goods include children’s clothing, footwear, car seats, diapers, some children’s toys and books, video-game consoles, controllers or physical game media. Dress up clothes, however, will be taxable.
It’s …