The Ghanaian News
January 2014
5
Ottawa lifts GST/HST on hospital marking fees, reversing a tax bite imposed in last year’s budge
If you’re spending time at a hospital or visiting someone who’s there, the federal government is cutting you a little break. You’ll no longer have to pay HST or GST on your parking fee. The Canadian Press reports the Conservatives are proposing to lift the tax they imposed in last
March’s budget, which was aimed at removing a tax break on fees at public institutions and charities where parking was run by a non-profit partner. No reason›s being given for Ottawa›s decision to exempt hospitals from the tax change, though thenotice seeking comment posted on the Department of Finance’s website refers to “the
Government’s record of support for families, students, seniors and pensioners, workers, and persons with disabilities.”
rather than raise rates.
However, CP reports hospitals complained the addition of GST/HST was a hardship. Most use parking fees as a revenue-generator for the hospital and believed they›d have to eat the additional cost of the tax
Hospital parking fees are contentious. A 2011 editorial in the Canadian Medical Association Journal called them an illegal “user fee in disguise,” that caused unnecessary stress on patients going for
[ Related: Medical journal argues hospital parking fees should be abolished ]
treatment and relatives tor at the time diss u p p o r t i n g p a t i e n t s missed the argument, s t a y i n g l o n g - t e r m . noting parking revenue was a tiny fraction of a Nevertheless, in an age hospital›s overall budget. of tight budgets and rising costs for equipment «Parking fees are a barand staff, hospitals cling rier to health care and to the revenue stream add avoidable stress to that parking provides. If patients who have enough nothing else, the park- to deal with,» wrote Dr. ing lot itself costs mon- Rajendra Kale. «They ey to maintain and pa- can and sometimes do trol, administrators say. interfere with a clinical cont'd on pg. 9 But the journal›s edi-
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