Province Opposed to HST on Textbooks

The province has asked the federal government to change its legislation so that students who buy textbooks that include CD-ROMs are not required to pay the provincial portion of the HST.

"Textbooks are a significant cost of education and students don't have any choice about whether a book comes with a CD or pin number," said Finance Minister Peter Christie. "We would far rather forego our share of the HST in order to give our students a break."

Books in Nova Scotia are normally subject to the seven per cent GST, not the full 15 per cent HST. But a ruling by Canada Revenue Agency earlier this year stated that books containing CDs are not "printed books" as defined by the federal Excise Tax Act, and are therefore not eligible for the lower sales tax.

"Publishing practices have been changing over the past few years and CD-ROMs and other technologies are becoming commonplace. The federal tax legislation needs to keep pace," said Mr. Christie. "We've been discussing this matter with our federal and provincial counterparts for a couple of months now and made our position clear -- whether it contains a disc or not, a book is a book."

"Tax issues such as this occur all the time, and our record of working them out is very good," said Mr. Christie.