Manitoba PCs promise tax interest surcharge rollback for small businesses
Austin Grabish | CBC News | Posted: August 28, 2019 4:02 PM | Last Updated: August 29, 2019
NDP call Tory promise a 'weird, weird choice,' say it rewards businesses that don't pay taxes on time
Small Manitoba businesses that are late paying their taxes or have been found to not have remitted enough will be charged a little less in penalty fees if the Progressive Conservatives are re-elected, party leader Brian Pallister says.
Pallister committed Wednesday morning to reducing the interest surcharge on taxes to prime plus three per cent, down from prime plus six per cent.
"Our small business community — mostly family-owned small businesses — creates jobs in our province and they don't deserve to pay the highest taxes in Canada on remittances," Pallister said, maintaining the lower fee would still be a deterrent for businesses that haven't paid enough in taxes.
He estimated the change to interest surcharge on taxes would cost about $9 million over the next four years.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation lauded the promise.
"Here's the thing: complexity is one of the biggest problems with the tax code," said Todd MacKay, the Prairie director for the federation.
"It's easy for a small business to go offside without even knowing it. Complexity also makes it easier for the few who are cheaters to bend the rules."
MacKay said rather than adjusting penalties, it would be even better if politicians committed to reviewing and simplifying the tax code.
The NDP questioned Pallister's promise on Wednesday. Andrew Swan, a spokesperson for the party, called it a strange priority for the Tories.
"To turn around and now give relief to those few small businesses that don't pay their taxes on time, that get caught not paying their taxes, is a weird, weird choice, and the only person who would do that, you'd think, is somebody who happens to be the principal of a corporation in Costa Rica that didn't pay its taxes for a whole decade," said Swan.
The former NDP cabinet minister was referring to Pallister's vacation home in Costa Rica, purchased in 2008. Pallister has been penalized for taxes owing on his vacation home there. He provided proof earlier this year that he has paid the luxury tax he owed on the vacation home.
Taxes have been a centrepoint of the Progressive Conservative campaign. The Tories have already announced they would stop taxing home and rental insurance.
Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont called the PCs' promise a "micro-announcement from a government that has no plan to deal with the most serious issues facing Manitobans."
"Manitoba Liberals want to have friendlier tax collection, but this change would also have the effect of rewarding people who avoid paying their taxes on time — an issue that Pallister has struggled with himself," he wrote in a statement.
Election day in Manitoba is Sept. 10.
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