Nova Scotia to mirror Ottawa and remove sales tax from new rental constructions
BNN Bloomberg
Nova Scotia will remove the provincial portion of the harmonized sales tax from the construction of new rental apartment buildings, Premier Tim Houston said Thursday.
Houston said his province plans to mirror a move announced last week by the federal government, which said it would suspend GST on rental housing starts to lower the cost of labour and materials for homebuilders.
“The housing issues (shortages) are significant for sure,” the premier said. “There won’t be any one single solution that gets us through this. The federal government has started with this HST removal and we are going to do it as well.”
Nova Scotia's 15-per-cent harmonized sales tax combines the federal GST and the provincial sales tax; the provincial portion is 10 per cent. Houston said his government will remove the tax for two years and then reassess the effects on the market.
