Zurich Citizens News, 1974-11-07, Page 4PAGE 4
ZURICH CITIZENS NEWS THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 1974
Pity the poor tax collector
None of us likes paying taxes. Not the least of the taxes we
dislike paying is the provincial retail sales tax. Still, when it c
comes to the retail sales tax, believe it or not, there is one per-
son who is worse off than the paying customer. That person is
the retail merchant himself.
Not only does the merchant have to take our smart talk regard-
ing the tax, but he has to collect it and complete the returns
required and all for nothing.
At least since 1972 he has done it for nothing. In that year,
as most of us will remember, the sales tax was increased from
five to seven percent. But how many of us realize that at the
same time the commission of 2 1/2 per cent which was paid to
the retail merchant for his work and worry was discontinued?
As the merchants succinctly put it in a petition they have
presented to Minister of Revenue Arthur Meen, "All retailers
registered as vendors under The Retail Sales Tax Act are now
unpaid tax collectors for the Province of Ontario."
And, as the merchants also state, "The payment of taxes
has been recognized as a duty of the citizen since Biblical
times. We draw to your attention that even in those tunes, the
cursed tax collector received compensation for his duties."
We can't think of a better way of putting it.
Not that the retail merchants were entirely satisfied with the
procedures prior to the change. It seems that a very few retail-
ers were getting the lion's share of the compensation then paid
under the existing Act. According to the Retail Merchant's Ass-
ociation of Canada. (Ontario) Inc. which presented the petition,
there are approximately 150, 000 vendors registered under the
Retail Sales Tax Act of Ontario. In 1972, six major retailers
collected over 80 per cent of the compensation then paid.
To avoid this from happening again, the merchants recomm-
ended that the commission of 2 1/2 per cent be reinstated but
that a ceiling of $500 be placed on the amount of compensation
to be paid to any one licenced vendor in any calendar year.
Sounds fair enough.
In fact, the merchants have such a good case that we can't
imagine why a previous brief presented in July 1973 was turned
down. The association says it is because the ministers involved.
Allan Grossman, and John White, were of the impression that
compensation was not being paid by any jurisdiction in Canada,
This time around the merchants have done their homework.
They contacted every province to find out just what was being
done. They received replies from everybody except Manitoba.
With the exception of Alberta which has no sales tax, and
Ontario, every province replied that it did indeed pay a com-
mission on the collection of sales tax. The association is still
checking on Manitoba.
The collection of the tax poses the biggest problem for the
small independent retailers --those men and women who do not
employ a bookkeeper and therefore must keep the necessary
records themselves.
Already caught in a tight squeeze with rising labor costs and
inflation in general, the small business man can ill afford to
work for the government of Ontario for nothing.
The manager of the Retail Merchants' Association of Canada
(Ontario) advised us on Friday that Revenue Minister Meen has
already told them their petition bas his personal sympathy. The
man who now must be convinced is John White, treasurer of
Ontario and minister of Economics and intergovernmental Af-
fairs.
We trust Mr. White has also done his homework since he dealt
with a similar petition from the retail merchants in July, 1973.
(The Listowel Banner)
Jottings by Jac
(continued from page 2)
One of my constituents wrote
to me, unfortunately omiting
her address making it difficult
to respond, and raised a matter
which I am sure concerns many
senior citizens. She was under
the misapprehension that the
new Drug Benefit Program req-
uired her to obtain a prescript-
ion each time she needed a
refill.
Senior citizens are given
four drug cards at a time, and
doctors may authorize a supply
of drugs up to six months. If
a senior citizen wants more
than one month's supply of
drugs, all he or she has to do
is to deposit the corresponding
number of cards with one
pharmacist. This is the proced-
ure which can be followed by
senior citizens particularly
those who have transportation
difficulties or those who wish
to spend a holiday away from
home for any length of time,
ZURICH Citizens NEWS
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.74. 4
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International Scene
(by Raymond Cannon)
LEST MR RICI-IARDSON
FORGETS
Each year, as we approach
Remembrance Day on Novemb-
er 11, I feel it appropriate to
say a few words riot only to
those who, like me, lived
through World War Two, but
especially to those who carne
along at a later date and really
do not understand what war is
all about.
Admittedly, ,I was very young
during the war and took no act-
ive part in it. My greatest
contributions were the knitting
of scarves for sailors, purchases
of war saving stamps and a
short stint in the Air Cadets.
However, I saw men go off to
war, never to return, and I
saw some corns back crippled
for life. Living in Germany,
as I did for a while after the
war, I saw first hand what this
can do to a defeated nation.
Each year as the number of
people who participated in the
two world wars continues to
decrease and the memories of
these wars becomes fainter in
people's minds, it becomes
more difficult to say sonithing
of value, In writing about Rem-
embrance Day, you find your-
self groping for words and ideas
and realizing that everything
you would like to say has al-
ready been said many times in
the past. However, this year I
have an unexpected source of
inspiration and my big job will
be to keep what T have to say
down to the normal limits of
this column.
Our Minister of National Def-
ence, Mr. Richardson, has
recently announced that he in-
tends to reduce the number of
men in our armed forces below
the present S0, 000 level. Ile
went on to say that he would
prefer to have 50, 000 mien well
paid, well fed, well equipped
and with high morale than
80, 000 nen sitting around in
the barracks with nothing to do.
This is all very well except
that it is an impossible achieve-
ment from any point of view.
Every so often, Ottawa dec-
ides that it doesn't need as
many men as it currently has
in the armed forces and institute
a new austerity program. Invar-
iably the number of men is
reduced but, at the same time,
we are promised that the armed
forces will become more effic-
ient and, with the money saved,
new equipment will be purchas-
ed. Well, I haven't seen any
improvement in the efficiency
of the armed forces and I am
still waiting to see all this new
equipment which is supposed to
have been bought.
I find it highly ironic that
we can take time out each year
to honour the people who died
for their country serving in our
military forces. Ever since that
time, our governments have
tended to treat the military
as second rate citizens deserving.
something less than the best.
As I understand the role of the
armed forces, they are to act
as an arm of our national pol-
icy, In other words, they are
to carry out as best they can the
policies which Ottawa has laid
down as being desirable. In
essence, what has happened is
that as the role of the armed
forces has increased in import-
ance, the government is, at
the same time, cutting back
on the men required to fulfill
this role.
We are still expected to
make a contribution to NATO,
we are still expected to contri-
bute large number of men to
peace -keeping duties, we are
still expected to protect the
sovereignty of this country and,
yet, Ottawa seems to think we
can do all this with fewer and
fewer men and older and older
equipment.
In matters of national defence
I like to think that the Swiss
set an example as to how to go
about making the armed forces
an integral part of any national
policy. The Swiss, as you all
know, are staunch supporters of
neutralism. They want to stay
out of any war they can and
they are the last people in the
world who could ever be accus-
ed of aggression. Nevertheless,
every Swiss citizen is required
tobe a soldier at the same time
as he is a doctor, a dentist, a
lawyer, or an engineer. For
this reason they have a larger
air force than we do and are
able to rnobolize no less than
500, 000 soldiers in 24 hours.
Compare that with Canada's
80, 000 for the whole armed
forces and you will see why the
Swiss have been emminently '
successful if avoiding war for
150 years. Even Hitler consider-
ed the price too high to pay to
take over the Swiss mountain
passes and industry and preferred
to persue his goals elsewhere.
I believe that, we can learn a
great deal from the Swiss app-
roach to the use of armed forces
(continued on page 5)
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