The New Ontario Tax... and what it means!

It looks like Ontario will officially introduce the Harmonized Sales Tax on July 1st 2010 (HST being the combined GST and PST, so the new tax will be 13%). For golfers, this will affect the price of greens fees, range fees, and memberships, as well as some member services, such as club storage. Currently, these items have had only the 5% GST applied. We're still waiting for the "official" word from the Ontario Ministry of Revenue or the Canada Revenue Agency on any possible exemptions to this tax. An extra 8% will definitely be a bitter pill to swallow for all of us.