School board cheering on MP‘s tax refund bill

By J.P. SQUIREThursday, June 7, 2007 http://www.kelownadailycourier.ca/stories.php?id=48082

The Central Okanagan School District is cheering a private member‘s bill that would refund 100 per cent of the GST paid by Canadian school authorities. The bill, tabled in the House of Commons by Southern Interior MP Alex Atamanenko, would increase the refund from the current 68 per cent. “We have written several times to the federal government about this because municipalities have been allowed to claim it all, and it just didn‘t make sense that school boards weren‘t,” said board chairwoman Moyra Baxter on Thursday. “I think all school boards, ours included, see this as a positive thing, so it would be really welcomed.” The best solution would make school districts GST-exempt so they don‘t have to pay it in the first place, she said, since that would eliminate the accounting necessary to claim a refund. “That would make things much, much easier. But even if they say we have to claim it back, to get back 100 per cent would make a big difference, between $200,000 and $300,000 a year in our operating budget.” The provincial government covers the GST paid when school districts are building and equipping new schools, but the province is GST-exempt, so Baxter isn‘t sure what happens at the provincial level. “There has been an awful lot of lobbying by provincial organizations and the Canadian School Boards Association, and we‘ve talked to our MPs about it,” she added. Atamanenko said ordinary Canadians want to see schools funded properly and his bill will help ease financial pressures in schools across Canada. “The CSBA has been asking to be relieved of this costly burden for years,” said the NDP MP. “The finance committee pre-budget report recommended that the government institute a full rebate for school boards, but, unfortunately, the recent Conservative budget failed to deliver again.”

Atamanenko says the GST imposes a complicated and expensive administrative burden. The system of rebates, claims and payments is onerous and complex, and forces school boards to engage experts to help them obtain the largest rebates possible while complying with the regulations. “When the federal government has to offer courses to school boards to help them deal with its GST rules, there should be some recognition that this complex and burdensome tax is an inefficient system that has to go,” said Atamanenko. “It would be a very simple matter to change the Excise Tax Act to exempt Canadian public schools from paying GST on school board purchases.” Atamanenko calculates increasing the GST rebate to 100 per cent would save Canadian school boards a total of $185 million annually. “Our public schools are already under-funded and while school authorities are struggling to make every dollar count, money continues to be clawed back from their budgets by what is nothing more than a tax on a tax,” said Atamanenko.