Adapting to the new PST in BC

So yesterday, I received a message to call back the PST info person. I had written in to get advice on whether or not the products on my website would be taxable, or not. Still don't have an answer, but at least I know why. We're being held up by the politicians who are reviewing the new laws and regulations before passing them.

http://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/topic.page?id=0CE539AD86F44033A1C531B9B597EA86

Here's what we do know. There are bulletins but the laws and regulations, where we'll find out what the rules really are, aren't passed yet. They've been drafted, but until they are law, we really have no clue how to interpret the new law. We can look at the old rules and interpretations because those may give us a clue, but those aren't going to help in some ways because technology has come some a long way in such a few short years. When PST went away, I wasn't using technology available today to create products I couldn't have dreamed up back then.

You'd think it would be easy. Today I sell is recorded webinars, eBooks, and templates that show how to calculate and reconcile the books and taxes that I've created in Word, Excel or OneNote.

They could tell me, based on Notice #18, that my live presentations, as in you attend a live presentation of almost any type, that wouldn't be considered PST taxable because it would definitely be exempt. On those I'd only have to charge GST. Same with my accounting/consulting/tax services.

But, once that live presentation was recorded and uploaded for sale as a downloadable product, it is no longer a live event, so it doesn't meet that exemption any more. But wait, there are other exemptions.

So you'd have to look at the exemption for "qualifying educational ..." and they don't yet have a definition for that. So until they decide whether what I'm doing qualifies under that definition, I'm in limbo on the re-sale of a live event. Do I qualify or don't I? My products are educational, at least I think they are, but will they meet the definition? No idea.

Not really sure about the templates as they would fall under that same "qualifying educational ..." or my eBooks, because they are PDF's whether they are qualified as exempt either, as we aren't sure of the definition of an eBook is.

Sigh. I can't imagine this is easy for the bureaucrats writing this new law and regulations either. The old law was quite simple, and the complication came in the interpretations of the law, which weren't law, and were incredibly specific about all sorts of things. It's supposed to be easier to interpret, because the new law and regulations will include these interpretations, making them accessible but not necessarily easy to understand and follow.

I'm already wishing we hadn't switched from HST to GST and PST. Not only will I have an increased cost of operating, but there will be a whole new change in everyone's procedures. Coupled with the loss of the penny, that's two fairly major changes in one spring. Welcome to my spring.