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VANCOUVER – The province will review the existing policy regarding sales tax exemption for newspapers, said Provincial Revenue Minister Bill Barisoff.
“The provincial sales tax includes an exemption for books, magazines and newspapers,” Barisoff said. “One objective of this policy is to exempt from sales tax those publications that are generally considered to be newspapers. If this objective is not being met, it needs to be changed.
“It was never our intention, or the intention of the previous government that implemented this policy in 2000, that newspapers should be taxed. Clearly the Georgia Straight is a newspaper, yet it is not treated as a newspaper under the current policy. Accordingly, the Premier has asked me, together with the Minister of Finance, to review this policy and how it is applied, in order to solve this problem.
“We will consult with the newspaper and publication industry, and act to fix this problem,” Barisoff concluded.
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