Some small businesses concerned about making changes to comply with GST holiday

As the federal government prepares to lift the GST on a laundry list of items on Saturday, some small businesses are concerned making it happen will be a huge problem.

The tax holiday will exempt federal tax from a wide variety of items, including restaurants, grocery store snacks, video games, Christmas trees, some beer and wine, and toys.

However, this means businesses must change their systems, so they aren't charging customers.

"The way we've designed our store is in sections, and each of those sections has a tax code assigned to it. And that means I have 400-plus tax codes, and I need to change them all one at a time," said Kari England, the owner of Toad Hall Toys.

With the changes not coming into effect until Saturday, England said she can't start to change the codes until her business closes on Friday.

"So there's extremely little notice on this, and then two months later, they'll have to reverse all of the changes that they've made," said Brianna Solberg, the director of provincial affairs with CFIB.

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) is concerned all this could lead some small businesses to make unintentional and ultimately costly mistakes.

"Many of them are fearful that if they don't get this right and apply the tax correctly, the CRA will come after them in two months with interest and penalties."

When making this decision, the federal government said it looked at two factors.

"First of all, what were the items that would really help Canadian families over the holidays to afford the things they need. And maybe to save a little money for the things they want," said Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland.

England hopes the break will help people, but she doesn't believe it will offer any help to her business's bottom line.

The Canada Revenue Agency told CTV News Winnipeg its efforts will be dedicated to focusing on businesses that collect GST, but fail to remit it on their tax returns.

It noted businesses making reasonable efforts to comply would not be the focus of their efforts.