Home Sellers in Toronto and Mississauga - Beware - Pickpockets at Work

If you are planning to sell Toronto Real Estate or Mississauga Real Estate Premier Dalton McGinty wants you to start paying Provincial Sales Tax on real estate commissions.

McGinty mused out loud recently at a press conference that the Province was going to investigate the possibility of harmonizing the PST with the Federal GST or Goods and Services Tax. That would mean you would be paying 5% GST and 8% PST together, for a total of 13%. At first glance it sounds like you'll just be paying the same amount. Except some goods and services are not subject to PST at the moment.

At present, 5% GST is applied to the commissions a Realtor charges for selling your home, PST does not apply.

Premier McGinty wants to add 8% more to that already obscene charge just for the privilege of making a move. Let's examine what the result is to you on a sale of a condominium or home at $300,000:

Today

Sale @ $300,000 X 5% Commission = $15,000 X 5% GST = $750

McGintys' Tomorrow?

Sale @ $300,000 X 5% Commission = $15,000 X 13% HST = $1950

That's a whopping $1200 difference coming out of your pocket.

Your home has lost some of its value this year but McGinty wants you to pay more to sell it!

The Artful Dodger would be proud. McGinty has graduated from Pickpocket School with flying colours.

The Ontario government has repeatedly rejected past calls to harmonize the PST with the GST, saying it would add taxes to items that are currently exempt such as books and feminine hygiene products as well as services such as real estate commissions.

That's what residents of Nova Scotia discovered in the first year of their not-so-harmonious harmonized tax. A study showed citizens there paid an extra $84 million for the privilege.

Call your local member of Ontario Provincial Parliament and let them know you will punish them at the voting booth if they harmonize the PST and GST. You can find your MPP by clicking on or copying and pasting the link below. If you don't know who your MPP is, there is also link to find your constituency, and from there your MPP.

http://www.ontariotenants.ca/government/mpp.phtml