Liberals trimming small-business tax rate amid uproar over tax-reform proposals
OTTAWA — The Trudeau government took the first of several steps Monday to stanch the bleeding from a self-inflicted political wound, resurrecting a campaign promise to cut taxes for small businesses outraged by its controversial tax-reform proposals.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to gradually trim the small-business tax rate to nine per cent by 2019, down from its current level of 10.5 per cent, and also to make further changes to the plan that triggered the angry backlash from entrepreneurs in the first place.
“This tax cut will support Canada’s small businesses so that they can keep more of their hard-earned money, money that they can invest back into their businesses, their employees and their communities,” Trudeau told a news conference in Stouffville, Ont.
The small business tax rate will fall to 10 per cent in January 2018 and again to nine per cent in 2019.