Government Takes Additional Steps to Help Small Businesses Prosper

Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, June 3, 2013… Gail Shea, Minister of National Revenue, and Minister for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, on behalf of the Honourable Ted Menzies, Minister of State (Finance), today met with business owners in Dartmouth, to highlight the vital role that small businesses play in supporting the economy and job creation, and how the Harper Government’s Economic Action Plan will help them grow and succeed.

“Our Government recognizes that the success of our country’s small business community is critical to creating jobs and driving economic growth,” said Minister Shea, who met with the owner and employees of Mezza Lebanese Kitchen in Dartmouth. “Our low-tax approach allows small business owners to focus more on expanding to create new jobs, and less on their tax bill. Through Economic Action Plan 2013, we are continuing to introduce measures that support Canada’s job creators.”

“Taking action on issues that affect the bottom line of Canadian small businesses is important to help them grow their business and, in turn, help grow the economy,” said Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) senior policy analyst Jennifer English. “Extending and expanding the temporary Hiring Credit for Small Business and enhancing the Lifetime Capital Gains Exemption are two measures that CFIB recommended and will be welcomed by many small firms across Canada.”

Economic Action Plan 2013 proposes a number of key measures to support small businesses, including:

• Extending and expanding the temporary Hiring Credit for Small Business for one year, which will provide up to $1,000 against a small firm’s increase in its 2013 Employment Insurance (EI) premiums over those paid in 2012 to employers with premiums of $15,000 or less in 2012. In all, an estimated 560,000 small businesses will benefit from this measure, allowing them to reinvest approximately $225 million in 2013.
• Increasing the Lifetime Capital Gains Exemption to $800,000 from $750,000 in 2014, and indexing it going forward. The Lifetime Capital Gains Exemption increases the rewards of investing in small businesses and makes it easier for owners to transfer their family businesses to the next generation of Canadians.

The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) will automatically calculate the hiring credit for a small business without adding any administrative burden or increasing red tape. Amounts are calculated using the Employment Insurance information from the T4 slips filed with the 2012 and 2013 T4 information returns.

“I’ve been working hard to expand my business to the four locations we have today, and the Hiring Credit for Small Business has made it easier for me to bring on the new staff that we need,” said Peter Nahas, owner of Mezza Lebanese Kitchen in Dartmouth. “It’s great to see the Government supporting small businesses like mine.”

The new measures announced in Economic Action Plan 2013 build on the significant actions taken by the Harper Government since 2006 to support small businesses:

• Reducing the small business tax rate to 11 per cent from 12 per cent.
• Increasing the small business limit to $500,000 from $300,000.
• Reducing the red-tape burden on small businesses, such as allowing business owners to go paperless when dealing with CRA.
• Introducing a Code of Conduct for the Credit and Debit Card Industry to help small business owners when dealing with credit card companies.