Sales tax for Canadian photographers

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For Canadian professional photographers (and other business owners), the federal government has published a brief GST/HST guide and a sales tax calculator. The calculator is titled “GST/HST calculator” but the results will also show provincial tax.

Current sales tax rates (these may change):

British Columbia: 5% GST and 7% PST

Alberta: 5% GST and 0% PST

Saskatchewan: 5% GST and 6% PST

Manitoba: 5% GST and 8% PST

Ontario: 13% HST

Quebec: 5% GST and 9.975% QST

New Brunswick: 15% HST

Nova Scotia: 15% HST

Prince Edward Island: 15% HST

Newfoundland and Labrador: 15% HST

Yukon: 5% GST and 0% PST

Northwest Territories: 5% GST and 0% PST

Nunavut: 5% GST and 0% PST

In British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Quebec, the provinces which have both GST and a provincial sales tax, each tax is charged on the retail price only (i.e. there’s no tax on the other tax).

 

Please check the date of this article because it contains information that may become out of date. Tax regulations, sales tax rules, copyright laws and privacy laws can change from time to time. Always check with proper government sources for up-to-date information.

 

Importance of Business Portraits

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A company logo is very important to a business since it represents that business. Similarly a business portrait acts like a logo for that person. So why do some people use holiday snapshots or other amateur pictures for their business portrait?

An article written by personal branding expert Daniel Schawbel talks about the importance of having professionally produced portraits:

…get the best possible photo of yourself. For if logos are quintessential to commercial brands, photos are quintessential to personal ones. … pictures – when they display a lucky blend of originality, quality, artistic merit and manage to capture the essence of what you stand for – send a powerful message about you and your brand that colors the perception other parties will have of you across the board. Underestimate the importance of a portrait picture at your own peril.

…today even home-made pictures can have astounding quality and do the job for us – at least temporarily. If you ask me, however, I would never recommend trusting such a crucial piece of your personal brand to luck and my advice has consistently been to always engage the services of a professional photographer…

Here’s another article on the importance of business portraits.

 

What’s in a name?

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The Associated Press (AP) is launching its new entertainment picture agency. 

Just what the world needs, another picture agency cranking out more of the same, commodity, entertainment photos and producing even more celebrity worship. (Yes, I sometimes shoot the same entertainment pictures and I plead guilty as charged.)

The advantage of taking pictures of the famous is that they get published.

– US Photographer Elliott Erwitt

But that’s not the fun part.

AP is using the name “Invision Agency”.

Dictionaries define invision as: want of vision, without the power of seeing, lack of vision. It’s also a synonym for blindness. The word invision is related to the word invisible but it’s obsolete in the English language.

Did AP really mean to use the word envision?

 

Some information about knowledge

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A company recently hired a Toronto corporate photographer to do an executive portrait of its president.

While watching the photographer set up his camera equipment, the company’s communications manager asked, “Did you know that the sensor in your digital camera is just like a solar panel? Both convert light into electricity.”

The photographer answered, “That’s interesting information.”

As the photographer positioned his lights and made a few test flashes, the manager said, “The xenon gas in your flashes is also used in laser eye surgery.”

The photographer replied, “That’s interesting information.”
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Monkey Business

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When a car has a leaky tire, the problem is obvious and the solution is simple. The car owner could shop price to find the cheapest, reasonably competent “grease monkey” to make the repair. (Grease monkey is an uncomplimentary term for a low-end car mechanic.)
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Professional Insurance

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Professional photographers are insured but amateurs are not. Why would you hire an amateur to do your corporate photography or commercial photography? How can your business afford such a risk?

Here’s one example, another example and another example that show why an insured photographer is important.

Professional photography is all about reducing customer risk. The risk of problems during the photo shoot, the risk of poor quality pictures, the risk of missing deadlines, the risk that the pictures won’t meet your needs and the risk of wasting your time and money.

Professional photographers are worth more than what they cost.

 

Searching In All The Wrong Places

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After searching through twenty-four Toronto photographers’ web sites yesterday, trying to help a customer find a suitable photographer, I gave up. The customer needed some fashion-style photography which I don’t do.

One photographer’s web site stated, “I specialize in fashion, beauty, weddings, portraits, children, maternity, glamour, food, product, catalog, commercial, editorial, landscape and pet photography.” Wow! Everything but the proverbial kitchen sink.

Another photographer said he was “based in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, London, Paris, Rome and Sydney.” Jeez, talk about covering all your bases!

The slideshows on one site contained 89, 112 and 172 pictures. Who has the time to click through that many photos?

One site required the viewer to click through four splash screens before getting to the actual content. A few Flash-based sites barely functioned. One site popped open a new window for every photo. Several sites had unreadable text. And yes, a couple of sites had music playing.

One photographer wrote, “I am a very busy photographer but I have decided to accept bookings for 2012.” Gee, how considerate of that photographer!

From time to time, photographers should pretend to be a customer searching for a professional photographer. See what customers have to put up with while tediously searching through endless photographer web sites. Then use this information to improve their own site.

 

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