The just-released federal budget is "a pretty good budget for small and medium-sized businesses," according to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB).
Laura Jones, CFIB executive vice-president, told Business in Vancouver that the CFIB has given the federal budget a "B."
"I think there's a lot in this budget for small businesses to be excited about," she said.
Jones said top gains for small businesses are:
- an increase in the Lifetime Capital Gains Exemption to $800,000 from $750,000, to support businesses who are selling their companies as part of a retirement savings plan;
- renewing and expanding an employment insurance tax credit – the Hiring Credit for Small Business – to offset EI premium increases, to the estimated benefit of 560,000 Canadian employers; and
- the federal government staying on track to eliminate the deficit by 2015.
As to what could have made the budget better for small businesses, Jones said the CFIB would also have liked the federal government to commit to no Canadian Pension Plan (CPP) premium increases.
"We're quite worried about that as a payroll tax," she said. "We haven't been entirely clear on where the federal government stands on that and we're looking for them to take a strong stand opposing the increase in CPP."
She added that the government could have sped up its return to balance.
"Obviously if they'd been ahead of schedule on deficit elimination that probably would have bumped up their grade a lot."
