Stop the PST tax grab on my business!

Red circular graphic showing the words CFIB Victory.

Thanks to you raising your voice, the B.C. government has paused its plan to charge a 7% Provincial Sales Tax (PST) on these basic professional services on October 1, 2026:

Accounting and bookkeeping; Architectural services; Engineering and geoscience services; Rental property and strata management services; Commissions related to buying and selling non-residential real estate; Security and private investigation services.

But paused is not cancelled.

If the government brings back the PST, it would add more than $500 MILLION a year in costs to B.C. businesses and consumers. Your industry could still be next.

Meanwhile, the B.C. government is drowning in a record $13.8 BILLION deficit — $450 million worse than it projected in February.

Premier David Eby

CC: Minister of Finance Brenda Bailey

While your government has paused its plan to expand the Provincial Sales Tax (PST) to professional services, it’s time to finish the job.

A pause isn’t a decision. It’s a delay. I sign contracts, write quotes and make hiring decisions months, sometimes years, ahead. Every one of those now comes with a question I can’t answer: will a 7% tax land on my services before the work is done? I can’t run a business on a maybe.

Your own budget committee already told you what to do: repeal this expansion outright.

I am calling on you to:

  • Permanently repeal the PST expansion to professional services, exactly as Recommendation 5 of your own Budget 2027 consultation committee already told you to do.
  • Offset rising costs that government itself drives up, like payroll costs, fees, or paperwork, by reducing the small business tax rate and providing Input Tax Credits (ITCs) on the PST my business pays.
  • STOP treating small businesses as government’s piggy bank!

Small businesses are job creators, risk-takers, and community builders. We cannot continue to absorb new taxes every time government faces fiscal pressure.

Take this tax off the books for good and stand with small businesses.

Reconsider this decision and stand with small businesses.
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The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) is Canada’s largest association of small and medium-sized businesses with 103,000 members across every industry and region. CFIB is dedicated to increasing business owners’ chances of success by driving policy change at all levels of government, providing expert advice and tools, and negotiating exclusive savings.