By Brittney Matejka

Town hall held for small business owners to share concerns over proposed Liberal tax changes

Sep 22, 2017 | 6:18 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB. – There is a growing chorus of opposition to the proposed tax changes by the Trudeau government. A town hall was hosted by Medicine Hat-Cardston-Warner MP Glen Motz and The Hon. Official Opposition Shadow Finance Minister, Pierre Poilievre; to address concerns by small businesses and farmers.

The two Members of Parliament explained how the proposed tax legislation would increase taxes on investment income for small businesses by 73% and deny business owners from sprinkling income between family members.

Farmers were also very vocal at the meeting about the proposed changes made to farm sales and capital gains tax. Third generation rancher Brad Osadczuk, Osadczuk Cattle Co., urges people to let their voices be heard and bring this to the attention of the federal government.

“We all need to voice our concerns and contact our politicians in Ottawa and let them know how we feel about this and how its going to impact families and maybe impact people that they really weren’t meaning to. I have a feeling they weren’t meaning to be that vindictive and right now it hurts,” he said.

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The Liberal government said they want to prevent people from turning there income into capital gains, which is taxed at a lower rate. Under the proposed tax reform, Poilievre said that farmers who choose to sell their land to their children will be subjected to paying taxes as a dividend at a rate of 45% tax. However, he said it would not apply if the farm sale is to a non-family member.

Poilievre said he is worried about how this will change the future of Canadian Agriculture.

“A lot of farmers will be forced to sell to a big corporation who will rent the land back to the kids and the kids will go from being on their own land to being tenants of corporate landlords,” he explained.

This is still a proposal by the Liberal government and all of the details have not been finalized. A final proposed draft of the new tax legislation is expected to be made public before January.