Good news - provincial business tax rate to fall from 13 percent to 12 percent
Going forward - Manitoba needs a tax competitiveness plan

WINNIPEG: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) praised the provincial government today for reducing the business tax rate from 13 percent to 12 percent, effective Wednesday, July 1, 2009. The reduction was announced in the 2007 budget and was reaffirmed in the March 2009 budget.

"Reducing the business tax from 13 percent to 12 percent will help improve Manitoba's competitiveness," said Manitoba director Colin Craig. "The reduction will allow businesses to reinvest more of their earnings into hiring additional employees, higher wages and expanded operations."
 
Craig noted that the Doer government has made good progress in reducing business taxes since taking office. The general business tax rate has been reduced from 17 percent to 12 percent since 1999 while the small business tax rate has been reduced from 9 percent to 1 percent.
 
"The Doer government acknowledged that taxes matter when it comes to attracting workers and businesses to Manitoba, but there is still a lot of work to do when it comes to school taxes, payroll taxes and personal income taxes," added Craig.
 
Going Forward
 
The CTF urged the provincial government to immediately develop long term plans to:

• Reduce personal income taxes
• Eliminate the job-killing payroll tax
• Eliminate school taxes
• Control spending

According to Statistics Canada, Manitoba lost 66,261 residents to lower-taxed B.C., Saskatchewan and Alberta between 2001-08." added Craig. "The fact that only 41,627 of their residents moved here tells us we need to become more competitive."