On July 1st the Provincial Sales Tax (PST) will be eliminated. On that date, you’ll see the 7% B.C. rate join the 5% Goods and Services Tax (GST) to give us a total HST rate of 12%.

 

Here is a quick summary of how home purchases will be affected by the HST

 

 

There is no change for resale homes.  There was never any GST nor PST payable for resale homes.

 

If you are buying a brand new home, you will receive a rebate of 71.43% of the provincial portion of the HST, up to a maximum rebate of $26,250.  Purchasers of eligible new homes above $525,000 will be eligible for a rebate of $26,250.

 

The idea of the rebate is that the buyer will pay no more provincial HST than is currently embedded as PST in the...

On July 23, 2009, British Columbia announced its plans to implement a Harmonized Sales Tax (“H.S.T.”) for B.C. effective July 1, 2010. The H.S.T. is a combination of the 7% Provincial Sales Tax (“P.S.T.”) with the 5% federal Goods and Services Tax (“G.S.T.”) for a single sales tax rate of 12%.

 

For consumers, goods and services (with some exceptions) will be subject to the H.S.T. in the same manner as they are currently subject to GST. This applies to real estate as well.

 

For both used and new homes, there are some extra costs for buyers or sellers but these are for the services...