Came across this yesterday : Alabama Severe Weather Preparedness Sales Tax Holiday http://revenue.alabama.gov/salestax/WPHolidayQuickRefSheet14.pdf
Though not a huge bargain (AL state tax is only 4%), it's the concept of it that I find interesting. Something about the government helping people help themselves that is attractive from a prepper's standpoint.
Would be nice if we saw something like that here. Perhaps exempting emergency preparedness kits of GST in earthquake prone BC or hurricane prone Maritimes - heck, make that across the country!
For the U.S. readers, there are several states that traditionally offer a sales tax holiday for weather - VA and LA among them. LA even had a 2A/hunting season tax holiday the last several years (hoo-hoo-hoo,like to see that one spread). I'd kind of like to see it done across the country, too. It just makes sense. Sometimes, like in VA and LA, the items exempt are pretty regulated both in cost and specific item, plus you have to be a resident of the state http://www.tax.virginia.gov/site.cfm?alias=HurricanePreparednessEquipmentHoliday . Even that would work for me, although I'd like to see the breaks open up a little.
Here's a list from last year. A lot of the states don't announce the annual special breaks until later in the year or right before they kick in, so state residents will have to plug it into a calender to ask about.
http://www.taxadmin.org/fta/rate/sales_holiday.html