09.12.2017 02:51 PM

My little lettter on the small business changes, which are becoming a big deal

Here.

12 Comments

  1. Mario says:

    The proposed tax changes and the increase to the minimum wage are going to have unforeseen consequences on the Ontario economy.

  2. Gord says:

    Well said.

    These changes seem to be particularly unpopular here in Alberta and if implemented will likely wipe out whatever little goodwill Trudeau managed to build in the federal Liberal brand. Which will make David Khan’s life particularly difficult at the provincial level.

  3. cash says:

    If Trump/GOP get their act together and significant lower personal and corporate taxes we could see a flight of capital and a brain drain. The two rich kids ( Trudeau and Morneau) don’t seem to understand basic economics. I would at least postpone everything until we see what happens south of the border.

    • doconnor says:

      I suspect there is more awareness of the benefits of living in Canada over the United States is greater than during the 1990s, and Trump and the Republicans will emphasize it further.

  4. Willie P says:

    Sorry Warren, but you’re a victim of your own success as a communicator. If the Liberals are successful in following up the communications strategies you’ve long championed, they’ll adopt a simple question-and-answer strategy. If you ask most Canadians: “Do you think it’s fair that certain rich doctors and lawyers should be forced to pay more tax?” I’m betting a significant majority of Canadians will simply say “yes.” All the nuance-y stuff about small business and hiring your kids will go out the window as this doesn’t apply to the majority of Canadian workers, particularly if doctors, lawyers and other rich folks launch lobbying efforts to protect their cash. I fully expect some horse-trading around this legislation that may remove some of more contentious elements you’ve identified, or at least a phase-in period to allow businesses to adjust. But if the Liberals are canny enough to exploit the resentment that many Canadians feel towards those are using the tax system to hide income, then I think they’ve got a winning strategy.

    • billg says:

      Your forgetting the most important part of this argument, why are we “hiding” income.
      Doctors in Ontario were told to use the current Federal Tax laws, it was an exchange for not increasing rates.
      Now, they are called cheaters for doing what was proposed to them.
      We subsidize Bombardier, we subsidize Teaches pensions, we subsidize all Public Servants pensions.
      But yet, the people who are the risk takers and the visionary’s , the people who employee more Canadians then any other group get this crap thrown at them.
      Nah, this was a blunder of epic proportion, why, cuz who doesn’t like their doctor, and who doesn’t know the guy who runs the corner store or lady that runs the gallery.
      All incorporated, all small business, and, all using the current tax laws to put into an RRSP or to pay the Dentist or to buy a prescription for their kid.
      Get it now?

      • doconnor says:

        It’s funny that one of the changes it to prevent owners from using a business as an unlimited RRSP.

        • Willie P says:

          If people who are “visionary’s” have such poor spelling and grammar as you do, then I worry about the state of the entrepreneurial class in this country. Besides, when I started my own small business, I was following a dream, not worrying about the math. If you want it enough, as I did, you’ll find a way to make it work.

  5. doconnor says:

    Here is a Progressive Economics post from 2015 describing some of the loop holes the government is removing.

    • Kelly says:

      Excellent article. Bottom line is tax cuts don’t spur investment — they represent free money for shareholders for doing nothing. Boosting demand by increasing the incomes of low income Canadians — through government transfers — leads to business growth. Don’t feel sorry for Doctors. They chose to go into medicine, make very high incomes, work in a protected sector (you need a license to practise medicine) and the rest of us subsidized their educations massively. In my opinion they should just be salaried like they are in the UK National Health Service but I digress.

  6. Brad Young says:

    I am a computer consultant and like most consultants you have to be incorporated to work in the GTA. Many other consultants I have met pay their children and parents just under the taxable minimum, and then the money gets passed back.

    Those family members are NOT legitimate employees and it’s tax evasion.

    So a few ruin it for everyone else.

  7. Derek Pearce says:

    I want a basic question answered that I see no answer to anywhere: what do we do to make it so that someone who earns $150K while incorporated pays the same amount of tax as someone who earns that much but is not incorporated? That’s the bottom line. I honestly think Joe and Jane Frontporch, who Warren loves to mention but who rarely make that much money even as a couple, are not fussed about this. It comes across as Richie Riches whining. Sorry.

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