I was thrilled to receive a riveting document on “Graphic Designers - Social Service Tax Act” from the government last week. This PST issue, when to charge, when not to charge, has been giving many Canadian design studios a headache for the last few years, and some of us have been audited on this. The problem was that the rules weren’t clear. Well, they finally are getting clearer. The government’s published a new Bulletin SST 128 this August. You can download it online at www.sbr.gov.bc.ca/ctb/GraphicDesign.htm, click on the link under “Bulletins”.

Print it out, take it to bed tonight and enjoy this fine read!

1. Yves Rouselle Says:
   September 7th, 2006 at 1:13 pm

   This new document does seem to provide much needed clarity. I do think that CTB has been making an effort to hear our concerns and trying to clarify how they interpret the legislation and in turn enforce the collection of tax.
   However, I still feel that it is out of sync with the intent of the pst tax as they’ve explained it. In their presentation to the GDC a few months back they explained that the intent of the pst was to collect tax on ‘manufactured’ tangible goods, and not to tax services. While this bulletin has language that more clearly defines their position, in my opinion it is still mistakenly seeing designers as manufacturers if we happen to flow through third party expenses on behalf of our client. As designers we provide a service and CTB agrees that is not taxable. Whether the printer sends the invoice to the client or the agency, the designer is still providing a service. And that is where my problem lies but it is an argument I’ve not been able to win.

2. kirsty Says:
   September 26th, 2006 at 10:31 am

   Hi Yves. The Government is putting on a PST talk for us next week. I’m going to bring this up;) I’m sure I’ll get the run around but it’s worth a stab.

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