March 20, 2024 – The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) is pleased the Saskatchewan government has listened to small businesses and provided some much-needed cost relief in Budget 2024-25 by freezing the small business tax rate at 1 per cent for an additional year. We also appreciate that this budget includes no new taxes or cost increases.
These actions will go a long way to help businesses cope with the financial challenges they are currently facing, namely rising costs, lower revenues, and heavy pandemic-related debt levels. In response to a recent CFIB survey, 83 per cent of Saskatchewan small businesses identified ‘the rising cost of doing business’ as their biggest challenge. Therefore, we urged the province to avoid piling on any additional costs for small firms in Budget 2024-25.
“Holding the small business tax rate at 1 per cent - rather than increasing to 2 per cent this year as was previously planned - will help provide small firms with the opportunity to reinvest in their businesses, hire new staff, increase employee wages, and/or pay off pandemic debt,” said Brianna Solberg, CFIB provincial affairs director.
Earlier this year, CFIB met with Saskatchewan’s finance minister to share recommendations for this year’s budget. Freezing the small business tax rate was the top recommendation CFIB presented. In this meeting, CFIB also highlighted the cost challenges small business owners are facing due to inflation and rising interest rates.
“Small businesses needed this tax break, otherwise, their corporate income tax bill would have doubled at a time when they can least afford it. While the difference between 1 to 2 per cent might seem minor, for a small business earning $500,000 in income that’s the difference between $5,000 and $10,000 in corporation taxes. This tax freeze will help give more businesses the chance to survive,” concluded Solberg.
You can read CFIB’s pre-budget submission here.
For media inquiries, please contact:
Brianna Solberg
CFIB Legislative Affairs Director
(306) 713-8071
Brianna.Solberg@cfib.ca
About CFIB
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) is Canada’s largest association of small and medium-sized businesses with 97,000 members across every industry and region (4,000 in Saskatchewan). CFIB is dedicated to increasing business owners’ chances of success by driving policy change at all levels of government, providing expert advice and tools, and negotiating exclusive savings.
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