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.

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.