Toronto Photography Meetup Group

Any drawback buying online from these stores out of Calgary? Their price is competitive and you only pay 5% tax.

Nothing wrong with those stores but you are about a year too late to get any tax savings.

HST is a federal tax and applies regardless of what province you are in.

http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pub/gm/b-103/README.html

Its great if you are a HST registered company - full amount of tax is now an ITC!

Is that true? From your link:
"Effective July 1, 2010, the HST applies in the participating provinces at the following rates: 13% in Ontario, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador, 15% in Nova Scotia, and 12% in British Columbia. The GST applies in the rest of Canada at the rate of 5%."

Even before July 1, 2010 GST was applied on mail order from Alberta stores.

I have purchased twice from McBain and both orders arrived fast, and well packaged. Prices were good even without the PST tax savings. On one order they applied the wrong price, but it was because an advertised price had not been updated in their system. I emailed them and they responded quickly with an apology and credited my credit card. IME it is a family owned store with good customer service.

The "tax savings" before July 1, 2010 was on the provincial portion of the tax.

So for stores outside of Ontario - you only got charged the federal tax. 5% at that time.

It wasn't really a tax savings because you were supposed to self assess any provincial taxes on your own but...

After June 30, 2010 - there was no more provincial tax for Ontario, but the federal tax went up to 13% for Ontario.

So the non-Ontario stores still charge only the federal tax for Ontario puchases but its 13% now vs 5% of the past.

Kiteguy is correct: You will have to pay HST if you order from them and have it shipped to Ontario.

I went through their checkout process providing my postal code and they only charge me 5% tax.

You're both right:

Retailers are required to charge HST when selling to an HST province. So The Camera Store and McBain's Camera are both supposed to charge you the full 13% HST. I know for sure The Camera Store does.

McBain's, however, somehow only charges 5% GST. When I asked them about it, they first feigned ignorance, then later they claimed some loophole that allows them to do it. I'm sure the CRA will be interested in hearing about it.

Many people write me and complain that the final price calculations on my website are wrong for McBain's because of this...

Import from Hong Kong, pay 0%.

Hope you don't get a Cannon or Nykon.

sounds good to me, 5%

also, the title of the thread made me think it was a clip from the Simpsons TV show where the McBain character tries to buy a camera but blows up the place. LOL

Sorry guys - I forgot that McBain is in Quebec.

Quebec never adopted the HST - those untrusting souls in Quebec like to collect their money first, then pay the Federal government so they charge GST and apply their QST on top of that.

Quebec remits the GST back to the federal government, no like Ontario where the Federal government remits the PST portion back to Ontario. Alberta works the same as Ontario, Federal government collects the tax and remits any provincial portion back to Alberta (which at this point is 0%)

I guess there are some issues with Quebec collecting HST and remitting back to the other provinces...so they just collect the old GST.

Err, isn't McBain in Alberta too?

EDIT: Moreover, Simon's, which is in QC, appears to have HST on their checkout... Also, I think the "untrusting" bit is uncalled for - plenty of other provinces, including Ontario, did GST+PST well after the first implementation of HST in '96.

Stores are required to charge GST (or HST where applicable) when selling to customer in another province.

For example, Simon's is required to charge:

5% GST + 8% QST to Quebec
13% HST to Ontario (HST Province)
5% GST (no 7% PST) to Manitoba (non-HST Province)

Opps - my bad - I was getting Simon's confused with McBains.

The provincial portion of the tax must be paid to that local provincial organization. For companies who do not have a business entity in a particular jurisdiction that they sell to, the onus to pay tax is passed to the buyer.

Ie. if McBain doesn't have a federally registered company and is only registered in Alberta, then they can only collect the taxes that they can remit (ie. GST (federal) plus Alberta Provincial tax (which is 0%)). They cannot collect Ontario Provincial sales tax if they do not have a registered entity in Ontario as they will have no way of remitting the tax that they collect. In these cases, it falls under different provincial and federal legislations for collection of sales taxes, but the onus is on the purchaser to pay and remit the tax on the purchase.
As there is no records transfer between provinces for these types of purchases, generally no-one ever volunteers to pay the money and there is no follow-up/audit procedure for the local government to ever know that the transaction took place.

If McBain DOES have a legal entity in Ontario, then they will have an Ontario provincial tax number and will be required to both charge as well as remit to the Ontario government all taxes on items sold in Ontario.

There is no more provincial retail taxes in Ontario - it has been rolled up into the HST.

Remember the story about the Ontario government employees who were fired by Ontario and rehired by Ottawa?
http://groups.google.com/group/can.taxe ... 46ec?pli=1

Its all a Federal responsibility now - stores no longer cut different cheques to the Ontario government and the Federal government. Its all to Federal government and they settle up with the provinces (with exception of Quebec where Quebec collects the money first and settles up with Ottawa later).

Hence, there is not supposed to be any tax savings anymore - unless you can claim an ITC.

This is incorrect, with the introduction of the HST. The HST is considered a federal tax, and McBain's is required to collect and remit the full HST (13% to Ontario). The Federal government will then distribute the provincial portion to Ontario as appropriate.