Stephen Lee

It appears there are many in government and the general public that think it is dead easy to run a small business. Apparently all we have to do is press a button and tax changes on point of sales machines will automatically and accurately align to a loose list provided by government days in advance of the busiest season of the retail year. The reality is that a hobby store owner must go through 3500 items in his store and make educated guesses on which ones will be zero rated and which ones won’t. He then has to reprogram his machine, educate his staff, explain to customers and risk making errors that would result in penalties from CRA. And he has to have all of this implemented 2 weeks before Christmas - which can make or break his year.

Here are the top concerns, which explain why small businesses are so concerned: - 77% say it is too complicated and costly (average of $1000 to reprogram POS machines) - 74% say it will simply push sales into the holiday period - 71% say big businesses/online giants will have the upper hand to benefit - 66% say there isn't enough time to implement the change - 66% believe the CRA will penalize them for making mistakes - 62% worry about customer reactions to the holiday (eg. arguments over what's taxable or not) - 61% do not believe this is a good way to provide tax relief - 56% believe the costs to implement will exceed any benefit

I've been working in public policy for over 30 years. I've seldom seen a tax or fiscal policy bungled so badly as the federal carbon tax. 1. In 2019, govt promised to return 10% of carbon tax revenue to small biz (and a few others). 2. They sat on the money FOR FIVE YEARS, reporting they were designing a proper rebate program. This account grew to $2.5 BILLION. 3. After significant pressure, the govt finally agreed to return the $2.5 billion to over 600,000 small firms based on their size. While not perfect, this was progress. 4. Govt then announced the small biz rebate would be cut from 9% to 5% going forward. 6. After CRA advised us that the December, 2024 small biz rebates would not be taxed (as they are modelled after the tax-free consumer rebate), Finance confirmed that they are indeed taxable. The entire carbon tax system is a mess and any pretense of revenue neutrality is out the window. No wonder 83% of small firms want the system scrapped entirely. cfib-fcei.ca/en/media/cfib-h…