I'm not much of a shopper, so merchandise tax refunds don't mean much to me, although I did buy a good watch in Montreal once and easily got my refund at the border driving back to Vermont.
The hotel tax refunds really do add up, however. I usually have mailed them in with the official form and received a very prompt refund. One time I did it in person at Windsor, Ontario, and it was really quick also.

<found the whole GST refund to be a Canadian ploy to extort even more money from tourists.>

How did you come to that conclusion? Does anyone in the states refund taxes to Canadian tourists? I thought it was a big plus to get anything back. They even refund the GST on hotels.

As for waiting for 45 mins to an hour...that was unecessary. I sent the receipts back with the gov't provided form and received a check (in USD)a few weeks later.

HAd you looked at a tour book or checked this forum, you would have realized there was an easier way.

Honestly, Dick, where in the U.S. would Canadians be subjected to taxes as high as those in Canada? Do you expect me to give three cheers because I got a refund for excessive taxes? Yeah, it's great I got some money back, but, for heaven's sake, the taxes were too high to begin with. What would I have gotten had I read the boards before going? Contradictory information, that's what. Some said receipts must be stamped, others did not. The information I received in Canada said receipts had to be stamped. Therefore, I waited in line, got my money back and went home. End of story.

Cheftrav, the idea is to do the research before you left for Canada.
I got this information prior to going to Canada.

ALmost evey website relavant to Canadian Tourism talks about the tax refund requirements.

http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tax/nonresi...rs/menu-e.html

Or this site regarding Ontario( you said you went to Niagara Falls).

http://www.ontariotravel.net/TcisCtr...amp;linkType=I

Your anger is misdirected

The hotel tax in NYC is over 13% and you don't get any refund.

IF Canada wil refund the GST, the only tax left is the Provincial tax and that isn't unlike a sales tax in the states

In fact, provincial sales tax is also refunded for most provinces (except, BC, PEI, Sask, and Alberta). For Ontario, as the Ontario website shows, you have to apply separately and PST for accommodation is not refundable.

The OP is right to warn about private companies offering refunds. They charge a fee in return for providing you an instant refund. Canada Customs and Revenue charges nothing.


I find Cheftray's opinions interesting. He thinks the taxes in Canada are excessive and too high, and he's welcome to that opinion. But what is "excessive"? They may be higher than in the U.S., but while no one in Canada likes to pay taxes, we have chosen to pay from our taxes for a number of government services which are not covered in the U.S. It's simply a matter of choice. The province of Alberta has no sales tax because it is awash in royalties from oil and gas, and the people of Alberta would never accept one. Many other countries have even higher consumption taxes than Canada because their citizens because they expect their governments to do even more. Americans have chosen low taxes and fewer government services, but I wouldn't critcize the U.S, for what I might consider inadequate services. That's your choice.

As far as tourists are concerned, a good portion of these goods, services, and sales taxes are refundable, and the process is reasonably simple, and information is readily available on how to do it. Let's face it, the government needs some proof before sending out refunds. I don't see any reason to complain.

I agree with laverendrye. In a way, it's like getting free money. Why would you complain? You're paying into it, but you're the rare few that have the luxury of getting that money back.

Frankly, while I appreciate the refunds, I've always thought it was odd to stupid for the Canadian government to refund those hotel taxes to foreign tourists. We use a lot of services when we visit and I think that's a good way to help pay for them. And I find it hard to believe that if we didn't get it back, that would discourage us from going!

By the way, the one bit of confusion I had was that the initials of some of those taxes did not match between the provinces and what was on the forms. I know there are several -- GST and PST, but hotel bills had itemized taxes with initials that didn't match any of the forms. I had to call and find out that two sets of names were actually interchangeable, although the form didn't state that.

We went to Nova Scotia last September and I kept our receipts and then just mailed them in with the form when we returned home.

I got my refund check very promptly without paying any fees or hassle.

Very good deal in my opinion.

We're traveling to Quebec for our honeymoon in three weeks and I will gather our receipts again and mail them in for our refund.

Takes about 10 minutes of your time and a 37 cent stamp to get back lots of money. Time well spent in my opinion.

Hi cheftrav -
I think I understand your frustration with our high taxes here, especially if it was an unexpected surprise.
I think you have to realize though that there are many factors to contribute to the fact that we have higher taxes than the U.S.

Firstly, we are a huge country (area wise) with only 30 million people. This means all of our vital services such as roads, railways, park maintenance etc, etc is paid for by a relatively few number of people as compared to the vastness of the task.

Also, as troubled as our Health Care system is, I will take it over the U.S. system any day. There are many advantages to us for paying a little more in taxes.

I visited New York earlier this year, and researched ahead of time what I could expect as far as taxes, prices of food, well prices of almost everything that I could research. That way there was no unexpected financial burdens.