(correct the 'July 78' to July 7) ◕‿↼

[transferpop3]

(correct the 'July 78'  to July 7)  ◕‿↼ 

[mdk]

@transferpop3 -- correct the ....

If you carefully move your mouse-pointer around the top-right of your posting, you should see:

That "Show option menu" normally is invisible.

But, when your mouse-pointer moves over it, click on it, and then click on "Edit reply" to make the correction.

Odd, and difficult to find, but it works!

[colleenmick]

I've been purging all the hard copies of Shaw Bills (from 2003) and have entered the billing details into a spreadsheet I wrote. Didn't take long, just 2 days.

My Comments on GST, PST, HST. 

Until April 2010 The PST exempt portion for the TV bundle and phone were stated on the invoice. For my TV bundle it said "Charges of $40.95 are Provincial Tax Exempt and charges of $76.00 are subject to Provincial Tax"  For the phone, it was $18.95 and $2 respectively. Total exempt $59.90.  May 2010 that description line vanished. There was still a PST exempt amount but the exact amount was no longer visible.

June 2010 started the conversion to from GST + PST to HST. Then June 2013 we got rid of HST and went back to GST + HST as separate line items. I'm pretty sure the PST exempt amount still existed but didn't bother sussing out the amount for these 2 years.

I was able to work backwards and see that a PST exemption was used from June 2013 onwards. The exemption was $57.90 in June 2013 for my phone and TV but there is no way to see how that was calculated. Since then, the exempt amount has fluctuated. It was $23 in Aug 2021 and is now $54 Feb 2022.

I went to the Shaw website to find out what the PST exemption(s) is based upon.  So far no luck, but I found this forum illuminating. 

[ajhilker]

Has anybody had any luck getting Shaw to compute PST properly. The worst part is that Shaw isn't profiting with this miscalculation but the province of BC is. It was nice to hear I am not the only one being over-charged. Anyone get satisfaction yet and if so how.

[iamcharles]

Grasshopper

Where you able to confirm these exemptions with Shaw? The Chat agent I just interacted with said the cable exemption does not apply. I politely terminated the chat and moved to there email section. Am waiting for a response. As far as I can read the Provincial Sales Tax (PST) Bulletin they do. It's a year later and Shaw still hasn't got the billing correct. The following is my problem 

My Shaw Bill states that my bundle cost for Internet, Cable and Phone is ($246-$105) $141.00 per month. The PST amount shown is $9.94. Even if the whole bill was PST chargeable (which it is not) it would be (141x.07) 9.87 a difference of $.07. But hold on, isn’t the first $25 of any cable service PST exempt (Provincial Sales Tax (PST) Bulletin {https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/taxes/sales-taxes/publications/pst-107-telecommunication-services....}) as well as my cable phone line? On my bill the phone service charge is ($26 minus bundle discount of $10) = $16. If both the first $25 of cable and phone service are PST exempt that amounts to (25+16)x.07 = $2.87. Now adding on the seemly insignificant amount of $.07 I’m being over-billed $2.94.

I haven' t reposted the above yet, waiting to get all my ducks in a row.

[rstra]

@iamcharles 

I just re-signed my value plan (price actually went down) and checked my bill. Previously, they were calculating the PST correctly and even included the $25 dollar exemption, but my new bill is wrong. I chatted in, the agent calculated the correct amount and gave me a credit, I will check my next bill to make sure it is correct, but I am not confident that it will be correct. 

[rstra]

@iamcharles I just got my cable bill and the PST is charged on the full cable service, there is no exemption for the first $25. I have BlueCurve TV and I think Shaw's interpretation of the act is that BlueCurve is Internet TV and doesn't qualify for the exemption.

Internet TV

PST applies to TV services provided through an internet connection. There is no exemption for basic TV services provided through an internet connection. Therefore, PST applies to the full purchase price of TV services purchased from an internet TV provider.

Some providers provide both TV and internet services through a single wire or cable. TV services are only considered to be provided through an internet connection if an internet connection is necessary for the provision of the TV services.

[iamcharles]

rsta You may be correct that a loop hole exists since I can get BlueCurve through the BlueCuve TV App. I am not sure you need internet to get BlueCurve put most of use have a bundled package with internet as part of it. But that does not explain the extra $.07 extra I am paying on my PST portion or the PST on my land line phone service which is also exempt. I wrote an email to them on July 22 but have yet to get a reply. As I believe you stated earlier on this subject not a lot of dollars but the principle is important to pursue. Getting the BC government to clarify would be nice put I suspect it would be an exercise in futility. Unfortunately just increases my distain for Cable and Phone providers.

[rstra]

@iamcharles internet is required for sure if the customers have the wireless boxes, I don’t know if internet is technically needed if the customer has the legacy BlueCurve boxes with tuners, but it is required by Shaw when subscribed. 

The exemptions seem to make everything more complicated. This is from the govt web site:

The exemption for residential phone services applies to phone services provided through a landline, including any installation or activation charges and additional residential services, such as call forwarding, call waiting or call display. However, the exemption does not include any long-distance charges (including flat rates for long-distance) or any phone services provided by means of the internet, such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).
In some cases, taxable long-distance phone services are provided together with exempt residential phone services for a single price. For the purposes of the PST, this is a bundled sale. The general rule for a bundled sale is that PST applies only to the fair market value of the taxable portion. The fair market value is the retail price that a good or service would normally sell for in the open market.
For example, a monthly residential phone service may include local calling, call waiting, call display and unlimited long-distance within North America. In this case, PST applies to the fair market value of the unlimited long-distance calling within North America.

[iamcharles]

rstra I suppose that the logic that it is better to over bill when it comes to PST is the logic being used on the phone and tv services. But to me the spirit of the Telecommunication Services Provincial Sales Tax Act would be to have the tax exempt apply. Do you agree?

However, that does not explain the over charge of $.07 on my bill. My before tax amount is $141.00 the amount of PST on my bill is $9.94. Which started me to look into this entire subject. I just emailed a second time, will see if I get a reply.