Time-consuming and complicated: Calgary retailers brace for federal GST holiday

With a federal two-month GST holiday set to start later this week, some Calgary businesses say a lack of communication has them worried they are about to face a logistical nightmare.

Pending Senate approval, the GST break will start on Dec. 14 and will run through Feb. 15, 2025. Under the exemption, essentially all foods in Canada will be tax-free. The tax break also applies to children's clothing and footwear, car seats and diapers.

Luz Arellano is the co-owner of Lil Soles Footwear in Market Mall.

She says the tax holiday is great for shoppers who are looking to save a bit of money, but it's difficult for a business like hers, which has already paid for the items they stock, and paid GST on those items.

"These shoes have been ordered almost one year ahead, so that way we are prepared for the season. We pay the GST in advance," she told CBC News.

"So, when we are asked to take that GST off the final purchase, we are losing five per cent of the cost of the shoe."

She says it still remains to be seen how she will recover that money, but assumes it will happen when she submits her final GST reports to the federal government.

Deborah Yedlin, the president and CEO of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, agrees with Arellano that the GST holiday will be a nice break for consumers, but she says for retailers it's going to get complicated.

"It's going to disrupt their inventory systems, it's going to disrupt their accounting systems, they have to make sure that their IT systems can accept this holiday, so … the logistics are going to be a challenge," Yedlin told CBC News.

"I think that's the one piece that wasn't necessarily considered as deeply as it should have been."

Arellano expects the process of going through sales receipts and separating out the items that were exempted during the tax holiday is going to be extremely time-consuming and complicated.

"It's not like the customers just come in and buy one thing," she said.

She says it's also going to be difficult making sure her employees know which items will now be exempt from the tax and which won't. 

Since the tax holiday only applies to children's shoes, that means GST will still have to be charged on shoes above a certain size.

And while it's fairly simple to remove the GST from selected items at the till in her store, removing the tax from items she sells online adds another layer of complexity to the situation.

"I think it's going to take us a little bit of time to figure it out," she said.

Hossein Piri, an assistant professor at the University of Calgary's Haskayne School of Business, says that, because of the complexity involved in applying the tax holiday to online sales, one of the effects of the GST break could be to drive more shoppers into physical stores, especially if they are shopping for larger items.

"It definitely induces more demand for physical, brick-and-mortar settings than online settings," he told CBC News.

The caveat to all of that though, Piri said, is that customers need to know that the tax holiday exists.

"Even though I work in this area, I was informed randomly, through the radio in my car. But not all people might be informed about that. So they don't know and they don't take advantage of it," he said.

Arellano agrees about the lack of communication.

"Honestly, I don't think it has been well communicated because I didn't really know about it until I went online and checked the news," she said.

Businesses seek support

Yedlin says, because of the additional work that will be required, businesses are asking for support from the federal government to help them adjust their systems so they can implement this holiday.

"They don't have a lot of extra time right now. They're already dealing with the postal strike and what the impact of that is, and now this is kind of one more thing on top of that," said Yedlin.

Piri says federal policy designers need to think about more than just helping consumers. They need to spend time as well thinking about how the information will be distributed, both to retailers and to shoppers, and how affected businesses will handle the extra work.

"Because the amount is low and because of all the variability that it may cause … like some confusion on the customer side as well as on the retailer side, it may not necessarily be worth it," he said.

Another thing concerning Arellano as she prepares to head into the GST exemption period, is how her customers will react.

She thinks they will be confused as well, particularly if they are buying one pair of shoes that is included in the tax holiday, along with another pair that isn't.

"It's going to cause a little bit of conflict, too," she said.

"It's not going to be easy, at all."