Looks like the Economist agree with HST in principle. HST is not just tax raise, it changes the nature of federal tax from sales tax to value-added tax and it supposes to replace incoming tax as a more “fair” tax system. Now we has HST, when are they getting rid of the incoming tax?

Nov 19th 2009, The Economist
Its advantages are oversold, but it is gaining adherents

LIBERALS oppose a value-added tax because it falls more heavily on the poor. Conservatives oppose it because it is a money machine. Larry Summers, Barack Obama’s chief economic adviser, once predicted that America would get a VAT when the two sides reversed positions. That moment may be approaching. Several prominent liberals and a handful of conservatives now see it as the most promising way to raise revenue, reduce the deficit and make the tax system more efficient.

VAT is a tax on consumption rather than income. All 30 members of the OECD levy one, save America. Unlike state sales taxes, which are charged only to the final customer, VAT is levied at each stage of production. This boosts compliance because a business, to receive credit for VAT paid on its inputs, must usually collect VAT on what it sells. VAT is usually charged at the same rate on almost everything. It thus distorts economic decisions less than an income tax, which is charged at varying rates with numerous exemptions.

Its advantages, however, are less overwhelming than they seem. Noncompliance for VAT ranges from 4% to 17.5% of tax owed, according to the OECD, not very different from the 14% estimated for America’s income tax. Politically sensitive categories are often exempted or taxed at a lower rate, diluting efficiency: child care in Australia, groceries in Canada, food and children’s clothing in Britain.

In America, a federal VAT would be imposed on top of the retail-sales tax charged by 45 states. Some could gain efficiency (and money) by harmonising their sales taxes with a federal VAT; four out of ten provinces already do so in Canada. An advisory commission recently recommended that California should adopt a VAT-like tax. It would be much more efficient if it piggybacked on a federal VAT, says Charles McLure of the Hoover Institution, a think-tank.

Selling a VAT is politically tricky. Australia, Canada and New Zealand, all recent VAT-adopters, replaced an existing federal consumption tax. Americans would be asked to pay a brand-new tax. The solution might be to charge a high enough VAT to exempt most Americans from income tax. That way, Mr Obama could claim he had kept his promise not to raise taxes on any household earning less than $250,000.

The most interesting part of the inspection is testing the air leakage of the house.  First the inspect closed all windows and doors, then he install a big fan in the front door and sucking air out from the house.  The fan create a pressure difference between the house and outside.  Depending on the sucking power of the fan and the pressure difference, he can calculate the air leakage of the house.  When there is a large difference in air pressure, I can put my hand in front of wall sockets or door gaps and feel wind coming through the gaps.  The optimal air leakage is 30% of the air in the house is circulated every hour.  If too much leakage, the house is losing too much heat.  If too light leakage, the air will becomes stall in the house.

Since  I am not a environmental friendly person, so I don’t really care about the green rating.  It will take many years to recoup the renovation cost on electricity and gas bills anyways.  Pat is more evnironmental friendly and she insists on the eco-inspection.  It turns out our house is already very energy efficient because it is quite new.  We are already using double layer windows, water saving toilet and Energy Stars appliances.  Basically we don’t have to do anything.

Support in Quick Tax for marriage couple is pretty good.  I can file two return under the same file and the software will take care of copying the required information between the two sets of forms.  It also has some tips on how to optimize the refund between the couple.  It is almost perfect except it is missing one feature.  I can’t merge the data from last year’s tax return for both of us.  I can only transfer last year’s data from one file and have to mannually enter the data for the other one.

Last year, my company changed the medical insurance coverage from 100% to 80%.  I didn’t realize I can claim tax credit for the remaining 20%, so I didn’t keep the recipts.  Damn… I could have get back ten or twenty bucks more from the government.  Next year, I have to remind myself to file all my dental and drug recipts.

As a alumni, I agree with the judge and glad that he had made the right ruling. Although outsiders thinks my high school is a elite school with four prime ministers on the alumni list, the fact is the students are as troublesome as other teenagers. Things just happens at night in board schools. The teachers living on campus has to deal with it. The headmaster is not exaggerating. We do have drunken students and students with emotional distress. I was caught once sneaking out to have beer in midnight and saw more than once fights break out among students who suppose to be sleeping. We also pranked the headmaster from time to time. I remember we wrap his car with toilet paper in Halloween one year and painted his lawn furniture in pink the other year. I don’t think anyone with a right mind would pay the market rent to live among 200 naughty teenagers.

I don’t see any way we can cut our consumption on oil.  Only those who are too naive or stupid will think public transit can replace automobile as a mean of transportation.  Time is also money.  The time I wasted stuck in a bus is much more than the money I have to spent on gas.  Taking public transport doesn’t make any sense unless your home and destination is right next to a Skytrain station.  Maybe the only solution is to invent some new source of energy to power our cars.