Tax Discrimination Threatens Community,
Ethnic and Campus Media: Not real “newspapers” according to
Provincial Taxman
(QUEEN’S PARK) The survival of many ethnic, community and campus newspapers is in jeopardy because government tax collectors say they are not real newspapers, according to a coalition launched this morning at the Ontario Legislature.
“This policy is illogical, unfair and hurts some of Ontario’s smallest and most vulnerable communities,” said Sima Sahar Zerehi, editor of Shahrvand Publications, and a founder of SAVE OUR VOICE!
At issue is provincial sales tax on newspapers. The Retail Sales Tax Act says newspapers are exempt, but the government says newspapers are not real newspapers if they publish less than weekly or if they are non-dailies held together by staples.
Coalition founder Dat Nguyen, publisher of Thoi Bao, The Vietnamese Newspaper, says the Revenue Ministry is demanding he pay $1 million in sales tax arrears because his newspaper is bound by two staples.
“Our Thursday edition is a 208-page tabloid. How would you keep the pages together?” asked Nguyen. “Who are the tax collectors to tell us that our newspaper is not a real newspaper?”
Les Weller, who runs Weller Publishing and is a SAVE OUR VOICE! founder, said his company has been printing almost more ethnic newspapers than any other printer in Toronto. He identified several newspapers that tax collectors claim are not real newspapers because they publish bi-weekly or monthly.
“If the law says newspapers are exempt from sales tax, then all newspapers must be treated equally,” Weller said. “This tax policy is arbitrary, discriminatory and wrong.”
SAVE OUR VOICE! wants all ethnic, community and campus newspapers to be recognized as newspapers: no matter how often they are printed, and whether or not they are stapled.
“We want the government to treat ethnic newspapers the same as English newspapers … to treat rural newspapers the same as big city papers … and to treat campus papers the same as the mainstream press,” Zerehi said.
The coalition looks forward to working constructively and respectfully with the provincial government to find a fair and equitable solution for all community and ethnic newspapers. Because Ontario’s diversity is Ontario’s strength!
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For more information:
Jeff
Graham
416
865 5442
jgraham@fasken.com
