Halifax, April 27, 2017 – Key tax breaks for small business owners and spending in innovation and job training highlight today’s Nova Scotia provincial budget. Most significantly, the McNeil government has addressed two key asks from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, raising the basic personal exemption (BPE) by $3,000 for those earning less than $75,000 and raising the Small Business Tax Threshold (SBTT) from $350,000 to $500,000.
“We have been lobbying aggressively on behalf of small business owners to address these key tax issues, so we are pleased to see action on the Basic Personal Exemption and the Small Business Tax Threshold”, Jordi Morgan, CFIB VP Atlantic said. “We are also pleased to see a focus on areas which will improve economic growth, such as training and innovation, but our members remain concerned about growth in both the size and cost of government.”
Key benefits for small business:
- Increasing the SBTT from $350,000 to $500,000;
- Increasing the BPE by $3,000 for those earning less than $75,000;
- Establishing a target of $25 million red tape reduction;
- Balancing the budget;
- Some support for broad based productivity and innovation
Key remaining concerns:
- Continued escalation in the cost of government (2.8%)
- No action on the Small Business Dividend Tax Credit
- No movement on aligning public sector wages and benefits to private sector levels
While CFIB is giving the 2017 provincial budget a grade of “B”, this budget fails to address some of the fundamental issues around the overall growth of government spending. “While we’re encouraged by the attention being given to the small business tax burden, more can be done by eliminating boutique program spending which often goes unnoticed or unused and funnel it into more broad-based tax relief,” Morgan added. “A big question mark also remains around the implementation of the cap and trade carbon pricing scheme.”
To arrange an interview with Jordi Morgan, please contact Ryan Richard at 902-420-1997 or ryan.richard@cfib.ca
CFIB is Canada’s largest association of small and medium-sized businesses with 109,000 national members, including 5,200 members in Nova Scotia, across every sector and region.
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