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Canada ditches the penny

globaltvedmonton.com

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Re: Canada ditches the penny

#2
I wonder how this will affect sales taxation, as the tax rate isn't a multiple of 5 in all provinces, and hence the amount of tax collected on a purchase will have to be either be rounded down or up.

Re: Canada ditches the penny

#3
This line-item is basically a smokescreen for cutting all sorts of other important things (like the research tax credit, SR&ED; various social programs; the budget for our national broadcaster, the CBC; and the salary of the Chief Electoral Officer):

http://www.reddit.com/r/canada/comments/rjrfn/the_budget_5_b...

Amusingly this particular cut was actually a private member proposal from the NDP (the left-most mainstream party).

Re: Canada ditches the penny

#4
post #2

I wonder how this will affect sales taxation, as the tax rate isn't a multiple of 5 in all provinces, and hence the amount of tax collected on a purchase will have to be either be rounded down or up.

"If the customer has the pennies, they can use them. Payments with debit or credit cards, or cheques, can also be to the penny. But if the customer is paying cash and doesn't have the pennies, the total will go up or down to the nearest nickel."

I gather that's post application of sales tax.

Re: Canada ditches the penny

#5
A brilliant decision. Now if we could only get rid of our 1 euro cent here.

According to some inflation figures I quickly found on the internet, a (US dollar) penny had a hundred years ago 23 times as much buying power as a penny nowadays. That means the smallest denomination was then was worth almost as much as a quarter is now! People could get by without smaller coins then and they should be able to work perfectly fine now without worthless pennies.

Re: Canada ditches the penny

#6
If the customer has the pennies, they can use them. Payments with debit or credit cards, or cheques, can also be to the penny. But if the customer is paying cash and doesn't have the pennies, the total will go up or down to the nearest nickel. For example, $1.02 will become $1 and $1.03 will be $1.05.

Something just feels wrong about rounding. The customer would always get screwed. They should solve this problem by using the federal sales tax to round up/down. $1.25 + 5% = 5¢ of tax instead of 6.25¢.

That said, it would make sense for merchants to round down for cash purchases. It would be a tiny incentive to use cash rather than credit cards (which cost the merchant 2-4%)

Re: Canada ditches the penny

#8
post #3

This line-item is basically a smokescreen for cutting all sorts of other important things (like the research tax credit, SR&ED; various social programs; the budget for our national broadcaster, the CBC; and the salary of the Chief Electoral Officer): http://www.reddit.com/r/canada/comments/rjrfn/the_budget_5_b... Amusingly this particular cut was actually a private member proposal from the NDP (the left-most mainstre…

I'm not very familiar with canadian politics. Why is it amusing that the NDP proposed this?

Re: Canada ditches the penny

#10

If the customer has the pennies, they can use them. Payments with debit or credit cards, or cheques, can also be to the penny. But if the customer is paying cash and doesn't have the pennies, the total will go up or down to the nearest nickel. For example, $1.02 will become $1 and $1.03 will be $1.05. Something just feels wrong about rounding. The customer would always get screwed. They should solve this problem by u…

That sounds like a nightmarish tax policy.

Moreover one of the best things for consumers was when the stock market changed quotes from fractions to cents.

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