Bertha Campbell said dealing with two taxes creates more paperwork for farmers. (CBC)

P.E.I.'s largest farm organization plans to take a closer look at the HST.

Bertha Campbell, president of the P.E.I. Federation of Agriculture, said following other provinces in switching from collecting PST and GST to just HST would be advantageous for farmers.

"A lot of the times we talk about things that hold us back and red tape is one of them,” she said Wednesday.

Campbell does the books on her own farm and said that entails many hours dealing with the provincial sales tax and the federal goods and services tax. Blending them in the harmonized sales tax would simplify matters.

Roundtable to discuss switch

When the federation met last month, its members voted to press ahead with examining the HST and what a switch could mean for farmers.

The group is organizing a roundtable with economic and agricultural experts. They will build on the findings of a 2007 study that compared sales taxes paid by Island farmers to farms where the HST is in place.

"We were at about a 10 per cent tax disadvantage compared to our Maritime counterparts,” said Campbell.

She said a switch to HST would have to include help for low-income earners.

"So we need to look at that and understand that. If there are rebates that need to be built in for those people, that would be a necessity,” she said.

Five provinces charge HST:

• Nova Scotia
• Newfoundland and Labrador
• Ontario
• New Brunswick
• British Columbia

B.C. residents voted against HST last year and the province is preparing to return to PST and GST.

Talks broke off four years ago

The province had been asking Ottawa for millions of dollars to make the switch.

Wes Sheridan, the finance minister, said those talks broke off four years ago.

"Since that time, both myself and premier are on record saying very clearly that we cannot go forward without the appropriate amount of money from the federal government to offset those who would be most affected by an HST implementation,” he said.

On P.E.I. some items including home heating fuel are exempt from PST, but it is unknown if they would be exempt from HST.