HST rules will let them eat cake

Kyle Farquharson/for Metro Vancouver

Pearl Manzano shows off a cake at Goldilocks on West Broadway. Wedding cakes will be exempt from the HST.

More about HST

B.C. will pay $1.6 billion in HST funding over five years

B.C. shouldn’t be on the hook for HST: MP

Tax change unlikely to dent real estate market

Businesses make sense of HST decision

Cooking wine is HST-free.
Frozen pizzas escape the bite of the HST.
If you drink soy milk instead of the bovine beverage, then your wallet will feel the pinch. However, ice cream, sherbet and frozen pudding are taxable when sold in single servings.
Buy a muffin or pastry on its own and you pay tax, but buy a pack of six and it won’t be taxable.
Fruit drinks, if they contain less than 25 per cent natural fruit juice, are taxable.
Heated foods, salads and sandwiches and cheese and finger-food platters under $4 escape the tax in Ontario, but not in B.C.

Published: June 29, 2010 5:28 a.m.

Last modified: June 29, 2010 1:31 a.m.

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If you’re at a wedding some time after the harmonized sales tax kicks in on July 1, don’t complain if you get cake for dinner and dessert. You’re saving the bride and groom some money.

When the HST takes effect Thursday, wedding cake will be exempt from the levy, but not catered meals — one of the quirks that come with the controversial tax.

The Canada Revenue Agency, which will administer the new tax system, devotes 35 pages to food and the HST, and there are deals to be had.

Because a food or beverage hasn’t been defined under the federal Excise Tax Act, the revenue agency has made its own definition on products it considers to be basic grocery items and which are value-added, meaning a 12 per cent hike in B.C.

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