After two months, Canada’s federal GST/HST tax break officially ends today.

Items including food, beverages, children’s clothing and books were included exemption from GST/HST tax.

According to data from the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses (CFIB), only five per cent of small businesses saw a sales boost from the tax break.

“By all accounts the government’s GST holiday was a flop for small businesses,” said Dan Kelly, CFIB president said in a Feb. 11 press release.

The CFIB is Canada’s largest association of small and medium-sized businesses with 100,000 members.

“For many retailers it was an administrative nightmare to get point-of-sale machines compliant just before Christmas, let alone sort out which LEGO sets the holiday applied to, or how many items in a gift basket had to be tax-free for it to qualify,” Kelly said.

The CFIB is now urging the CRA to be “lenient and waive taxes owed, penalties, and interest for good faith errors made during the rushed implementation period,” Kelly said.

“The government should also provide affected businesses with a $1,000 credit in their GST/HST accounts to offset programming an administrative costs occurred back in Dec.,” he added.