Say good bye to the Canadian penny

[eduardo89]

Most young people would have no idea what a $1 or $2 bill are. I remember I was in kindergarten when they introduced the toonie, so I've really never experienced either banknote. I do have an uncut sheet of $2 bills though

 

[Trigonx]

Sometimes I get American pennies from vending machines o.o

Vending machines in Canada take Pennies? I've never seen one accept pennies here, or I just don't use vending machines enough.

 

[eduardo89]

Vending machines in Canada take Pennies? I've never seen one accept pennies here, or I just don't use vending machines enough.

Lol yeah I thought the same. I guess he meant American quarters and dimes which most Canadian vending machines accept. American machines always reject Canadian coins though, the size of Canadian and American coins are basically the same, but Canada uses zinc plated steel coin which have a different weight.

I've found it interesting though, basically every Canadian store will take American coins, but if you ever pay with Canadian coins in the US and the cashier notices they reject them. I guess this is because traditionally the Canadian dollar has been worth less.

 

[Lishy]

Yeah, Canadians accept American pennies. Including vending machines! Weird how that works?

 

[jmdrake]

The Canadian penny will still be accepted indefinitely as a form of currency, but the government says it will eventually require cash transactions to be rounded to the nearest five-cent increment. Customers are already forbidden from using more than 25 pennies in a single purchase.


So what does that mean for sales taxes? After all it's sales taxes that cause most transactions to end up requiring pennies. That plus the deceptive practice of charging "$1.99" for something.

Edit: Do Canadians have sales taxes?

 

[eduardo89]

Edit: Do Canadians have sales taxes?

Yes, there's a national 5% sales tax called the Goods and Services Tax (GST)

Every province except Alberta also has its own sales tax. Usually it's called a Provincial Sales Tax and is calculated on top of the GST. Many provinces have been moving towards a single "Harmonized Sales Tax" (HST) which calculates both taxes together.

 

[eduardo89]

The thing I hate in north America (Canada and US) is that sales tax isn't included in the price quoted. It's so nice here in Europe, if you buy something and it says it's €1, you pay €1. It's frustrated me so many times at McDonald's or other fast food where it says it's 99¢ for a hamburger and I have a loonie, but it ends up being $1.09 or so.

 

[WilliamC]

The Canadian penny will still be accepted indefinitely as a form of currency, but the government says it will eventually require cash transactions to be rounded to the nearest five-cent increment. Customers are already forbidden from using more than 25 pennies in a single purchase.


So what does that mean for sales taxes? After all it's sales taxes that cause most transactions to end up requiring pennies. That plus the deceptive practice of charging "$1.99" for something.

Edit: Do Canadians have sales taxes?

Sales tax, reminds me in Mobile, AL last summer they actually lowered the total sales tax from 10% to 9% (the city actually let expire a 1 time increase).

As someone who regularly calculates the exact amount of a purchase on the fly and pays cash and who had heard about it on the radio the day it happened, I was in a position to observe how long it took local stores to enact this change.

Most seemed to within a few days, and when I'd mention it to sales clerks they didn't know anything about it but really didn't care.

But there was this one store, happened to be the closest to where I was staying, that took over 2 weeks to lower their rate. I pointed this out several times (but I don't think the sales clerk had any control over it) and kept getting completely blank looks and "I have no idea what you are talking about" when I pointed out they were overcharging.

Moral is I think a lot of people are greedy, but even more are just too stupid to know when they are getting fleeced. They can't comprehend percentages or multiply, so how do they even know how much something is supposed to cost?.

 

[Lishy]

Taxes in Canada is too much. I bought an $880 laptop from Newegg, and after taxes it cost me $1024! WTF!?

 

[eduardo89]

Taxes in Canada is too much. I bought an $880 laptop from Newegg, and after taxes it cost me $1024! WTF!?

Still lower than in Europe. EU law says no country can have a VAT lower than 15%. Spain's is 19% and no goods are exempt.

 

[angelatc]

Still lower than in Europe. EU law says no country can have a VAT lower than 15%. Spain's is 19% and no goods are exempt.

But if you don't live in Europe you can get the VAT refunded. Not sure if Canada will let people do that.

 

[eduardo89]

But if you don't live in Europe you can get the VAT refunded. Not sure if Canada will let people do that.

I do live in Europe though. And tourists don't get everything refunded.

 

[MozoVote]

Just Google for "penny hoarding" ... this has been going on for several years.

We probably will stop minting penniesin the US within a decade. We got rid of the half cent coin long ago. There is a precedent.

I've always advocated lopping off a zero from the base currency in revaluation. Then pennies would be worth something. And gas would be 45¢ a gallon in California.

 

[WilliamC]

Just Google for "penny hoarding" ... this has been going on for several years.

We probably will stop minting penniesin the US within a decade. We got rid of the half cent coin long ago. There is a precedent.

I've always advocated lopping off a zero from the base currency in revaluation. Then pennies would be worth something. And gas would be 45¢ a gallon in California.

Yea but the lopping would be applied across the board to everyone's salary and income and savings and investments as well.

People just need to figure out that the entire monetary system itself is counterfeit before we can really solve the problem, and the momentum is growing.

When the change comes it will come rapidly, and it won't all be bad.

In fact, it may very well be much better quickly the sooner it comes.

 

[oyarde]

Yeah well just wait until a nickel is also worthless, then a dime, then a quarter...pretty soon you wot even be able to buy a liter of gas with a loonie...oh wait, you already can't.

It currently costs more than a dime to make an American nickel.

 

[oyarde]

Still lower than in Europe. EU law says no country can have a VAT lower than 15%. Spain's is 19% and no goods are exempt.

Spain likes to match the tax with the unemployment rate

 

[eduardo89]

Spain likes to match the tax with the unemployment rate

Then they need to increase the tax rate!

 

[MozoVote]

It's pretty pathetic that in my own lifetime I have seen our currency degrade to "not too far away" from a tenth of what it was. I can remember seeing gas station signs at 59 cents a gallon when I was a child. A Big Gulp at 7-11 was 49 cents. A half pint of milk in the primary school cafeteria (...yes I know it was state subsidized, but still...) was only SIX cents.

I'm only in my mid 40s. This is not like talking about pricing from the Great Depression or something.

 

[kezt777]

Yes, there's a national 5% sales tax called the Goods and Services Tax (GST)

Every province except Alberta also has its own sales tax. Usually it's called a Provincial Sales Tax and is calculated on top of the GST. Many provinces have been moving towards a single "Harmonized Sales Tax" (HST) which calculates both taxes together.

Being from Alberta, I always forget that the other provinces have sales tax... so yeah that's going to be all screwy eventually. Some are 11%, some are 14%... oh fun. It won't matter if items are no longer listed as $1.99 because even with $2, the funky tax totals will be a pain.

 

[kezt777]

Yeah, Canadians accept American pennies. Including vending machines! Weird how that works?

I dont think I have ever seen a vending machine that accepts pennies in my whole life here in Canukia!