Tuesday, June 26, 2012

CFIB release report on Small Business Taxation in BC Municipalities

Yesterday, the CFIB or Canadian Federation of Independent Business - BC Division released its' latest report on the taxation gap between small business taxes and residential taxes in each of the 161 municipalities looked at.

The CFIB points out while taxation overall for small business has not increased, a signficant gap remains between what a small business owner pays and what a resident pays for the small local government service

The CFIB report also points out that local government taxation is the biggest challenge for small business to thrive in their local communities

For communities in the Cariboo-Chilcotin:

Community
Ranking
Small Bus Taxes (2011)
Residential Taxes (2011)
Property Value
Small Bus Tax Gap (2003)
Small Bus Tax Gap (2011)
Wells
39 of 161
$638
$199
$67,000
2.80
3.20
Quesnel
62 of 161
$1,897
$639
$166,000
2.31
2.97
Williams Lake
132 of 161
$2,180
$1,023
$195,000
1.73
2.13
100 Mile House
130 of 161
$1,606
$752
$168,000
1.61
2.14

The CFIB has recommended:


  • Municipal governments must cap the property tax gap between business and residents at a maximum of 2 to 1
  • Municipal governments should provide earlier property tax notices for commercial taxpayers.
  • Municipal governments should allow commercial taxpayers to remit taxes in monthly or quarterly installments
  • Municipal governments should extend the homeowners’ grant to business owners occupying live/work spaces.

  • I'd like to see the municipal governments, here in the Cariboo-Chilcotin, to seriously look at CFIB Recommendation #2 and #3 as it could help small businesses survive in a challenging economy and in fact for Williams Lake - it would help meet ICSP Goal #2 - Lively Downtown

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

From what I've seen city hall doesn't care what the CFIB thinks business needs to thrive. They believe dog parks and a shiny new pool will bring business here albeit the high taxes.

Anonymous said...

Do you really think you'll have people living here (or moving here) to support those businesses without "shiny pools" and other things that attract and keep families??
Business is supply and demand....if one can't survive, another, better adapted, one will take it's place (if it's needed at all).
Why should the taxpayer support private businesses?? Taxpayer money should go to supporting things the communty wanrs/needs and to most those are "shiny pools", "roads", "garbage collection". etc... not private businesses.

Anonymous said...

Taxpayers taxes never go to support private business. Taxpayers wants/needs are being paid for by mostly by private business to the tune of it's not profitable to operate here anymore. Or do you actually think Sportmart is just closing because our pool sucks?
Guess we can all just shop out of town again as our choices here are limited or "too expensive" due to all the costs involved in keeping a business afloat.