The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) has mixed feelings on the federal government’s move to cut the tax rate for small business.
BC Vice-President, Richard Truscott says the Liberals waffled on this issue for two years, which has taken some of the shine off this announcement.
“The federal Liberal government had campaigned in the last election in reducing the small business tax rate and then pulled that off the table once they were in office. To see that reinstated is good news but it seems like they are doing this as a result of the big uproar.”
“It’s a nice sweetener, it’s welcome news, it’s positive news but it doesn’t take the edge off some of the tax proposals that the feds put on in the first place,” added Truscott.
It’s a glass-half-full, glass-half-empty situation.
“Cutting that small business rate is going to help, it’s certainly going to make a lot of small business owners happy, it’s going to reduce the tax burden a little bit on those businesses but the three tax proposals were much more foundational. They were much more fundamental to the way small business structures their operations.”
The three tax proposals included income sharing, passive investment income and capital gains, which has since been taken off the table by the Liberals.
The rate will be 10% in the new year and then rolled back to 9% in 2019.
Earlier this week, the Prince George Chamber of Commerce voiced their approval of the move following last month’s Canadian Chamber AGM in Fredericton, New Brunswick.