Greater Charlottetown Area Chamber of Commerce wants small business tax cuts

The Greater Charlottetown Area Chamber of Commerceis calling on the province to lower the small business tax rate from 3.5 percent to 2 percent by January of 2020.The request was made in its pre-budget submission to government.

Penny Walsh-McGuire, CEO of the chamber, applauds the 2018 decision to lower the small business tax rate by one per cent, she said.

"However, the reality is, Island small businesses are still paying the highest taxes in Atlantic Canada, second highest in the country."

While the chamber encourages fiscal responsibility, Walsh-McGuire said,overtaxing businesses has consequences anda further cut in the tax rate would make a big difference.

"The opportunity that this would present is really about making businesses more competitive and allowing them to invest both in their employees through wages, through job creation, and through business expansion," she said.

"So we firmly believe as a chamber that keeping money circulating in the business and in investing in the business really will help drive economic growth. And so this is just one lever to help support that."

Walsh-McGuiresaid a recentsurvey of its members found that 72 per cent felt businesses are overtaxed.

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