So, now that we have the HST and flight training is going to get more expensive, I'm wondering about having students pre-purchase flight hours so they can save on the tax (suggested by one of my students). I've been hearing of other businesses pre-selling products with delayed delivery dates and seems to be fine, any thoughts or will the feds hunt me down?

It will never pass, we are going to vote on it and shoot it down in flames! HAHA the government web page on it ridiculous! Sign the petition and get this BS squashed.

Invertago, don't really see a problem with that. Your student has bought and paid for your time at the front desk. The flight training and hours are then going to be paid for at the discounted rate of one cent per hour

Never pass? Don't hold your breath. Gordo already spent the money the Feds gave them in exchange for implementing HST, some 300+ million I think. Also, I don't think the signature gathering effort is even binding on the BC government. I'm surprise no one even started recalling Liberal seat holders yet.

moocow wrote:Never pass? Don't hold your breath. Gordo already spent the money the Feds gave them in exchange for implementing HST, some 300+ million I think. Also, I don't think the signature gathering effort is even binding on the BC government. I'm surprise no one even started recalling Liberal seat holders yet.

Ol Gordo should have taken the 300mil and ran lol, BC independence with inheritance!

As for the HST, I kinda was thinking they had passed it already

As far as I know any services purchased for future consumption after April 30th are HST taxable. Ski season pass', gym membership's etc etc. Not sure if aircraft rental would be included........

200hr Wonder wrote:It will never pass, we are going to vote on it and shoot it down in flames! HAHA the government web page on it ridiculous! Sign the petition and get this BS squashed.

Invertago, don't really see a problem with that. Your student has bought and paid for your time at the front desk. The flight training and hours are then going to be paid for at the discounted rate of one cent per hour

The petition is a joke. I think your forgetting this is a FEDERAL law surrounding the HST. The petition is nothing more than an attempt to get the PROVINCIAL government to revisit the idea, and they can simply let any new bill created by a successfull petition die on the floor. A petition to the provincial government has absolutly zero effect on the new HST

Weather you like it or not, your stuck with the HST until 2014 at which time the contract with the Feds is up and needs to be re signed or the program scrapped.

cgartly wrote:As far as I know any services purchased for future consumption after April 30th are HST taxable. Ski season pass', gym membership's etc etc. Not sure if aircraft rental would be included........

This is what I have heard as well. As of May 1, services to be rendered after July 1 are subject to HST. If you are getting an addition put on a house, and the work starts in June, and progresses past July 1, then the portion of the work done after July 1 is supposed to be subject to HST, but not the stuff done in June. Not sure how it would apply to aircraft rental either, since you likely are just buying a set number of hours, not a timetable for when those hours can or will be used.

Screw the socialist utopia of BC - go to AB for flight training.

Just enroll in a CPL program. It should still be tax-exempt??????

" Courses in Respect of Recognized Professional or Trade Designations

9. Supplies made for courses leading to, or for the purpose of maintaining or upgrading, a professional or trade accreditation or designation recognized by a regulatory body, or for a certificate, or for administering an examination, in respect of a course, or in respect of an accreditation or designation described above are exempt where the course, certificate or examination is provided by a professional or trade association, government, vocational school, university or public college or by the regulatory body. The exception to this provision is when the supplier has filed with the Minister an election under Schedule V, Part III, section 6 of the Act to have the supply of certificates, courses and/or examinations made non-exempt. An example of a course that would be exempt under this section is a bar admission course provided by a provincial law society. "

So far as I'm aware you have to pay GST on all flight training, and PST only if it is not towards a CPL, but I'm under the impression HST will be applied to all flight training in the future. I'll let the boss decide I guess lol.

Hedley wrote:Screw the socialist utopia of BC - go to AB for flight training.

Yes, where all the real pilots live!

We have the same deal in Ontario, not all that happy about it starting on my CPL this year.

The problem isn't the HST itself - it's that the provincial gov'ts are using the tax change as an opportunity to change exemptions. They could have just put the HST in place with the same exemptions on the provincial portion as before, plus get the benefits of a unified tax (it does save a pile of money for the government, which is more money for healthcare etc.), instead they got greedy. The outcry here in Ontario was enough to force exemptions back on some stuff but us pilots were too few and too quiet to get flight training exempted.

The rules governing how HST applies to flight training are the same as the ones that govern GST. CRA recognizes flight training which leads to a vocational licence (the commercial licence) as being tax exempt. However, only the portion that is under the supervision of an instructor is exempt. This is the dual and solo portion of the commercial training. The private pilots license, the 45 hours from the PPL that can be used towards the commercial and the 90 hours of build-up time are all taxable.

For accepting pre-payments, the deadline to ignore HST has already past and all sales for future delivery have to include the HST - but it is not that simple. The transitional rules are complex. I'd suggest you make a clean break and start collecting HST on 1 July.

Thanks Mike