A holiday from the GST announced by the federal government is getting mixed reviews.

While consumers will reap the benefits of the tax break, small business owners may be seeing more work than reward.

And the tax break isn’t applicable to everything, as Corinne Pohlmann, Executive Vice-President of Advocacy for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business shares.

“Things like groceries, though groceries are mostly tax exempt right now, but things like snacks often aren’t so those would be included. Children’s clothing, printed books only, restaurant meals and prepared meals, certain types of alcohol like beer, wine, and coolers but not spirits. Children’s toys are in there as well, Christmas trees are in there as well but not the ornaments that you hang on the tree. So it’s an interesting grab bag of things.”

The GST break is slated to go into effect on December 14th and last for two months.    

According to Pohlmann, restaurants and food service businesses will find the transition relatively straight forward, while general retailers are facing confusion and complexity about what is taxable and what is exempt.  

For more on the tax holiday, catch Thompson Today this afternoon at 12:40 and 5:10.