Notice to the reader: For Retail Sales Tax (RST) – On July 1, 2010 the 13 per cent Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) took effect in Ontario replacing the existing provincial Retail Sales Tax (RST) and combining it with the federal Goods and Services Tax (GST). As a result, RST provisions described on this page and in other publications ended on June 30, 2010.
Effective July 1, 2010 this publication was archived for RST purposes only. Use caution when you refer to it, since it reflects the law in force for RST at the time it was released and may no longer apply.
- There have been several recent changes to Regulations 1012 and 1013 under the Retail Sales Tax Act (Act). This Notice details the various amendments.
Exemption for Newspapers
Ontario Regulation 275/06 updated the definition of newspaper in Section 1 of Regulation 1013 under the Act to include bound printed publications that are issued at least five times per week. This change is deemed to have come into force on January 1, 2000.
Exempt Publications
As announced in the May, 2005 Budget, the definition of publications eligible for an RST exemption if produced or purchased by a religious, charitable or benevolent organization was expanded to include CD-ROMs and DVDs. These changes were fully implemented by Ontario Regulation 199/06 which added subsection 1(5) to replace subsection 1(1).
Subsection 1(3) was amended to include DVDs in the list of RST-exempt publications that may be purchased by a school, school board, community college, university or public library provided the DVD does not contain information that is primarily a computer program. This was also announced in the 2005 Budget.
This Regulation is deemed to have come into force on May 12, 2005. The exemption is effective for purchases made after May 11, 2005.
Multi-jurisdictional Vehicles
For purposes of multi-jurisdictional vehicle tax, Ontario Regulation 198/06 amended Subsection 24.4(2) to permit multi-jurisdictional vehicle owners to use appraisals to establish vehicle values when transferring vehicles from multi-jurisdictional use to Ontario use if purchased after September 30, 2001 and owned by the same person for more than 60 months. This was announced in the 2005 Budget.
For More Information
For more information, please contact the nearest Ontario Ministry of Finance Tax Office listed under Taxes - Provincial (Retail) Sales Tax in the blue pages of your telephone directory, or visit our website at ontario.ca/finance
