The Canadian Press Posted on Friday, April 29, 2022, 9:21 AM EDT Last Updated on Friday, April 29, 2022 9:21 AM EDT
The Ontario Liberals on Friday proposed removing the provincial portion of the HST from purchases of ready-made food under $ 20 and paying for it by raising taxes on wealthy people and high-profit corporations.
Currently, the HST exemption for cooked food is a maximum of $ 4, and Liberal leader Stephen Del Duca said the proposed measure would save money for families who add items such as grilled chicken to their groceries or an office worker who takes lunch from a local restaurant.
“Families in this whole province … need real relief,” he said. “They do not need empty words. They do not need empty promises. They need real relief that will help them in their daily lives.
NDP leader Andrea Horvat said liberals are the ones who put HST on prepared food above $ 4 when they were in power before.
“Now he’s trying to fix that by saying, ‘Well, now we’re going to remove HST from cooked food for under $ 20,'” she said. “In the first place, we cannot trust the liberals to do the right thing.
Liberals say the move will cost about $ 500 million a year in lost revenue.
They would add an additional one percent tax to Ontario-based companies with more than $ 1 billion a year in profits, which they say will generate about $ 150 million a year.
In addition, they are proposing to introduce a two percent increase in income tax on people earning more than $ 500,000 a year.
They say this will create a new 15.16% tax group on individual income above that threshold – affecting 0.2% of Ontario residents – and generate more than $ 350 million in annual revenue.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on April 29, 2022.
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