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Canada Drops Jewelry Excise Tax!

The Canadian Government today abolished it's jewelry excise tax.

Canada's conservative majority in government dropped a number of excise taxes on May 2 to create "a more competitive business tax system," said Jim Flaherty, the country's finance minister.

Along with the tax changes, Canada's jewelry excise tax was eliminated. In June 2005, Parliament voted to abolish the jewelry excise tax over a period of 5 years.

"Jewelry is available at all price levels and is purchased by a wide range of Canadian households," the budget report read. "Repeal of the Excise Tax will recognize this and ensure that the Canadian jewelry industry is able to compete on a fair and equitable basis with other retail and manufacturing businesses in Canada. It will also serve to reduce the compliance burden on the jewelry industry, a particular benefit to small businesses.”

The Canadian Jewellers Association (CJA) briefed the industry on the news. Morris Robinson, chair for the group's government relations committee, said, “We are delighted that the conservative government has ended the inequity and confusion inherent in the Excise Tax in the content of minister Flaherty’s budget.

According to a statement by CJA, the "vote of confidence to our industry is the result of many group and individual efforts, specifically to the Prime Minister [Stephen Harper] for honoring his campaign promise to our sector."

Are you listening U.S. Congress? Get rid of these consumption taxes!!


Posted by Barry Gutwein on May 3, 2006 11:04 PM in Diamond News | Comments (0)

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