The embattled Employer Health Tax from the NDP continues to be met with little fanfare – so much so, that the BC Liberals want it out completely.
The new tax is expected to replace MSP Premiums and could make life more expensive for small businesses.
According to a recent report, 30% of small businesses expect to cut staff in order to offset the new tax.
This will have a harmful effect on all sectors in northern BC according to Prince George-Valemount MLA Shirley Bond.
“The really devastating part is that it’s not just small businesses who will be impacted it is organizations including non-profits, universities, colleges, hospitals, the health authority – all of them will be facing this tax.”
She adds this will bring an unnecessary headache to small businesses and non-profits in Northern BC.
“This will cause them to layoff people or reduce services or transfer costs to taxpayers, that is simply not fair – this tax has to change and we are going to press the government to do just that.”
The local politician also wants some clarity on who will not be crippled by the tax.
“I asked the finance minister (Carole James) in Question Period to basically make it clear who is going to be exempt from this tax particularly non-profits who are struggling across the province in order to deal with this issue.”
“This was a surprise tax, the premier promised there would be no new taxes other than the ones they had announced, this was a surprise, this is going to have an impact and we’ve been pressing the government very hard to rethink this tax.”
In addition, the Employer Health Tax forces the NDP to make an adjustment to their budget, which was already tabled.
“It`s a very serious problem because the budget is based on taxation revenue that is generated in part by this tax, the speculation tax, the school tax, all of the taxes this government has brought to British Columbia since their time in office. Every time this government makes an adjustment there is going to be an impact on the budget they presented,” explains Bond.
The tax will kick in on January 1st and hits businesses with payrolls of over $500,000.