安省自由党的电子收款机政策将让你我蒙受损失

 

无论谁当政，历来的各届政府都会把一些预算政策“夹杂”在一些预算大项中蒙混过关。这种做法都是为了逃过反对党和媒体的视线，让这些不受人欢迎的政策神不知、鬼不觉地成为法律而得以实施。

Every now and then, governments will “bury” pieces of upcoming legislation within annual budgets or other larger pieces of legislation and bundle them for passage. The whole idea is to slip the unwelcome pieces of items under the radar of the opposing political parties and the media so as not to set off alarms to the public prior to them becoming laws.

 

最新的例子是安省自由党在其预算法案中塞进了一个强制商家使用电子收款机系统的法律。该法的唯一目的是打击商家虚报销售额，要求“政府指定的商家”必须用“政府认可的”电子收款机，并在“规定的时间，方式”将销售额电子传送给安省财政厅。

Recently, the electronic register legislation requiring the mandatory use of electronic cash register systems was included as measure in the Provincial Liberal government's budget bill. The sole purpose of this law is to crack down on under-reported income in Ontario. It will require that “prescribed businesses” record all sales transactions in an electronic cash register that meets “prescribed requirements” and to transmit the sales information to the minister (of Finance) within a “prescribed time, manner and form.”

 

财政厅发言人表示，新政策旨在防止商家在销售额上作弊，包括涂改销售数字和低报销售额。安省政府估计，商家在销售额上作弊而导致省府的税收损失5亿元左右。在我看来，这个数字远低于实际数字。加拿大统计局估计的数字更高！加拿大统计局称，黑市在加拿大的年度经济活动中占有超过450亿元的资金，仅在安大略省就有160多亿。

A spokesman for the Finance Ministry says the new rules are aimed at preventing electronic sales suppression, which involves manipulating point-of-sale systems to hide sales and under-report income. The Ontario government estimates a lost of approximately $500 million each year in tax revenue to electronic sales suppression. In my opinion, this number is much lower than the actual figures, even Statistics Canada gives a much higher number! According to Statistics Canada, the underground economy accounts for more than $45 billion in annual economic activity in Canada and over $16 billion in Ontario alone.

 

安省正在考虑采用与注册，收缴和缴纳HST相同的方式来解决销售额作弊的问题。该政策将影响年销售额超过30,000元的所有商家。省府认定的电子收款机的价格每台在3000元左右。

The province is looking at using the same guidelines that apply to HST registration, collection and remittance. That would mean all businesses with taxable revenues exceeding $30,000 annually would be impacted. The estimated cost of electronic cash registers meeting legislation requirements are priced in the neighbourhood of $3,000.

与其他政府要实行的新政策一样，安省自由党政府许诺会在未来几个月征询商家的意见。因为省府要确定哪些商家必须配备电子收款机，何时安装收款机，以及新政策如何执行的细节。政府还声称他们将与商家磋商，简化安装电子收款机的手续和安装电子收款机的合理期限，甚至考虑补贴商家安装收款机的费用。

As with any other proposals, the government made assurances that businesses will be consulted in the coming months as the province develops regulations to identify which businesses would be subject to the new laws, determine timelines and set out other implementation details.  Furthermore, the government claimed that they will consult with businesses and to making the transition as easy as possible through a reasonable transition period, and will consider financial or other supports for affected businesses.

安省是加拿大第一个强制实行安装电子收款机的省份。而俄罗斯于2017年7月就实施这一政策。俄罗斯采用了让财务数据运营商介入的做法。财务数据操作员从电子收款机中下载销售数据，并按规定将数据传给俄罗斯的税务部门。商家必须与财政数据运营商签订服务合同。

Although this mandatory Electronic Register program is the first one in Canada, other similar programs were implemented earlier by Russia in July 2017. Under that legislation, a third party is introduced – a fiscal data operator. The fiscal data operator gathers fiscal data from the Cash Register Equipment (CRE) and then transmits it to tax authorities in due time. The execution of a contract with a fiscal data operator is mandatory. 

俄罗斯规定，商家需要通过互联网向俄罗斯联邦税务局（FTS）提交所有财政文件，包括现金收据和特定的报表（“SRF”）。电子收款机要拥有网络数据传递功能。毫无疑问，这是政府监视公民日常活动的又一种形式。与俄罗斯政府一样，安省政府的这一政策向商家递出的信息是：你们都是骗子！

Under the Russian law, taxpayers are required to file all fiscal documents, including fiscal cash receipts and strict reporting forms (the “SRF”), with the Federal Tax Service (FTS) via Internet. New CRE models (electronic registers) have a functionality enabling taxpayers to transmit fiscal data on-line. Indeed, this is yet another form of a state's surveillance of its citizens' daily activities and a total lack of trust in them. Ontario, like the Russian government, send a message to businesses that they're not trusted!

 
安省自由党政府想要杜绝黑市。 “黑市”是指人们或商家为避免纳税而进行的非法活动。黑市的一些例子包括：“私下”现金交易，以现金支付家庭装修而不交HST，公司隐藏部分销售额以便少缴税，出租物业的人不报租金收入。

The Provincial Liberal government wants to stamp out the underground economy. “Underground Economy” refers to the illegal activities people or businesses do to avoid paying taxes. Some examples of the underground economy include: “under-the-table” cash deals; a person who pays for a home renovation in cash to avoid paying tax; a business that hides some of its sales to avoid paying tax; a person or business that rents out a property and doesn’t report it as income.

在日常生活中，我们中的许多人都可能会涉及黑市 – 只收现金的特价广式早茶，含税的现金零售和现金支付家庭装修费。

May be many of us can relate to these activities in our daily lives - Happy hours (special deals) for Dim Sum in the morning (cash only); retail sales at a store with taxes included (cash only deals again); and home renovations with cash payments.

如果安省自由党政府6月连任，电子收款机系统的影响就会很大。安省商家将不得不支付额外的费用来购买和安装“政府指定的收款机”。如果消费者不想付HST，商家将不得不代付HST，自己少赚。

The implications for electronic cash register systems are many if the provincial Liberal government is re-elected for another term. Businesses will have to pay extra to buy and install “approved” electronic registers. If the consumers want to pay the price tag amount without HST, then the businesses will have to include the HST in the sale price and absorb it with their marginal profits.

安省自由党的这个立法的代价是非常大的，它将给安省商业界带来更多的负担。毫无疑问，政府将会雇用更多的公务员来执法和开罚单。6月7日把你的一票投给谁时，你应该掂量一下这个问题。

This is yet another costly regulation that will burden the Ontario business community. Certainly more government employees will be hired to check on compliance and hand out summons. Voters should take that into account when they step into the voting booth to cast their ballots in the coming provincial elections!