Adding HST to Home Staging and Courses is an 'ouchy'...

n Canada as of July 1, 2010 British Columbia and Ontario are switching from gst and pst to HST (harmonized sales tax) and oh what fun that will be. The paperwork alone is mind boggling and I have to change this in so many of my marketing pieces. I'm told it all balances out with your business the same way gst did but I don't like it nonetheless. Adding that kind of sales tax on to services is really putting a dent in a client's overall budget!

The PRES school offers a 5 day course in home staging and redesign and I am seriously contemplating not charging the HST to my new students. My bookkeeper tells me all I need to do is adjust the cost of the course but I still pay the HST...

The clients who understand the value of home staging have happily paid for the services we offer. Now adding another 7% to that is quite the 'OUCHY'.I wonder if it might be worth using this to our advantage as a marketing strategy and paying the HST until the end of the year or for the next month, a few months...

Let me know if you have come up wtih any creative ways to alieve the 'OUCHY' of this new sales tax :)