The debate returns periodically, especially among the French community installed in Quebec: why are the sales taxes not included in the sale price, as seen elsewhere? Here are any response tracks.
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Many of you have asked Quebec to legislate in this sense in response to the new law on transparency in terms of price, which provides in particular the addition of a host of information on labels in grocery store.
“But still not able to put prices with grocery taxes,” deplored a user in comment under our tiktok video.
“It would especially be good to display prices with taxes directly, if applicable!”, Plaged another.
“In Europe, in the majority of cases, you pay the displayed price which already includes service and taxes. We could easily do the same. Instead, we give the illusion of a boon, ”also illustrated a person.
You should know that in Europe, the law requires that the price indicated must “include all the taxes and delivery costs”. If additional costs that cannot be calculated in advance are required, the consumer must be warned from the outset.
-A choice of the merchant
The Consumer Protection Act indicates that the price of a product “may not understand Quebec sales tax [TVQ]nor the tax on products and services [TPS] you Canada ».
So it means that a merchant could choose to include TPS and TVQ in the prices announced. This is the case of petrol: when you see a panel displaying $ 1.50 per liter, this is the price including all the taxes to which petrol is subject.
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Quebec would have already thought of legislating to include taxes in the sale price. The government would have changed its idea because of the pitfalls that the measure would create for companies that sell in the rest of Canada.
For example, an article displayed at $ 100 before taxes in Ontario on the website of a shop should rather be displayed at $ 114.75 – including taxes – in Quebec.
Watch out for advertisements
In any case, a merchant does not have the right to give consumers that they can avoid paying taxes as a promotion. Mentions like “tax leave” or “without taxes” are considered deceptive.
A merchant can however say that he pays taxes himself, that they are included in the price or that he grants a discount equivalent to the taxes.
