Ontario premier admits families will take a hit with the HST -- and so will their subscriptions

It turns out that critics of the HST haven't been crying wolf; in fact, the average family earning between $70,000 and $80,000 a year will pay $722 more a year, according to a story in the Ottawa Citizen. It was based on data commissioned and released by the Ontario New Democratic Party. 

The analysis, based on Statscan data, shows that the added burden of the new value-added tax will be between $4.7 million and $5.9 billion. 
Since some of the added burden on families includes 8% more for magazine subscriptions, which are discretionary, it seems highly likely that there will be a dampening effect on sub sales. It is no comfort that the Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty is now admitting this fact.

For some impenetrable reason Ontario decided to exempt newspapers from the 8% increase, even though magazines and newspapers are competitors in exactly the same business, with the same revenue sources (advertising and circulation).

Related posts:

• HST is not a new tax? Ask your subscribers
• What HST means to your magazine in ON and BC
• Newspapers, but not magazines, exempted from Ontario HST
• Ontario HST on magazines goes ahead, but subs prepaid before July 1, 2010 are exempt
• Ontario magazine publishers seem resigned to HST
• Harmonized Ontario tax confirmed; magazines to take a hit