Peggy Revell
If you run your own business and have ever been confused about how sales tax works, then you’ll want to sign up for the PST/GST seminar being hosted tonight (Oct. 23) from 6-9 p.m. at the Rainy River Future Development Corp. office here.
The event, alongside others this week, has been planned as part of Small Business Week, RRFDC business investment officer Angela Halvorsen explained.
The PST/GST seminar is basically to help out small businesses, particularly newer ones within their first year of business, she noted, adding it’s open to the public and free of charge.
“It’s a really neat session,” Halvorsen said.
Representatives from both the provincial and federal government will be talking about what these sales taxes are, how they apply to a business, when it is and isn’t charged, and the process for such things as tax exemptions.
The RRFDC brings in the PST/GST workshop every 18 months or so.
“It’s more about the rules and the regulations,” Halvorsen noted, such as explaining the differences between the GST (a value-added tax) and the PST (an end-user tax).
“They’re just treated differently, and it’s a little bit confusing when you’re new in business if you, say, don’t have the background, such as bookkeeping or business courses that explains that sort of thing,” she said.
“It’s very difficult to understand at first until you get the hang of it.”
“Not everyone knows that they have to even charge GST or PST because there’s rules on when you have to charge it,” she explained. “For example, if you’re just a business with only services . . . you do not have to charge PST because PST is only on tangible products.”
Small businesses have a huge impact on the community, Halvorsen stressed, especially since a small business is considered to be any with less than 50 employees.
“If you think of all the businesses in the Rainy River District and how many of them have less than 50 employees, most of them do,” she noted. “There’s the mill and maybe the Barwick mill that are over that many.
“So the majority of our people in the Rainy River District are employed by small businesses.”
Other workshops and seminars for small businesses were planned earlier this week, including one on tips and tools for starting a small business and another on customer service.
To register for the PST/GST seminar, call 274-3276.
