Small businesses commend Premier’s decision to remove the PST from insurance premiums

90% of Saskatchewan entrepreneurs support this decision

Regina, February 26, 2018 – The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) welcomes Premier Scott Moe’s announcement to reinstate the Provincial Sales Tax (PST) exemption for agriculture, life and health insurance premiums, effective today. A recent CFIB survey found 90 per cent of small business owners agree the provincial government should remove the PST from insurance premiums. 

The announcement outlined that the exemption covers agriculture, which includes crop, livestock and hail insurance premiums as well as individual and group life and health insurance premiums.  Health includes disability, accident and sickness insurance. The exemption is retroactive to August 1, 2017, the date PST was applied to insurance. The change has an impact of $65 million on revenue forecast for 2017-18 and a $120 million impact on revenue forecast for 2018-19.

When asked whether the provincial government should remove the provincial sales tax (PST) from insurance premiums, a strong majority (90%) of Saskatchewan business owners agreed; only 7% disagreed.

“This is terrific news,” said Marilyn Braun-Pollon, CFIB’s Vice-President, Prairie and Agri-business. “Given the number of ongoing challenges facing Saskatchewan’s job creators, this was CFIB’s #1 tax cut recommendation. We commend the Premier for listening to small business owners and announcing this decision today, which will give entrepreneurs much-needed certainty in these uncertain times.”

Small business owners will be looking to the upcoming provincial budget to address their other top priorities which include: Getting back to balance by continuing to reduce the size and cost of government through workforce attrition; providing additional tax relief by also removing the PST from other insurance products such as property and vehicle insurance; reinstating both the PST commission and indexation of the Personal Income Tax (PIT) system; and continuing to reduce red tape. CFIB also looks forward to finding out more information about how the refunds will be administered on April 10th.

To arrange an interview with Marilyn Braun-Pollon, CFIB’s Vice-President, Prairie & Agri-business, please call (306) 757-0000, 888 234-2232 or email mssask@cfib.ca. You may follow CFIB Saskatchewan on Twitter @cfibsk.

About CFIB
CFIB is Canada’s largest association of small and medium-sized businesses with 110,000 members (5,250 in Saskatchewan) across every sector and region. Learn more at cfib.ca.