As MSP bills come to an end, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business has a number of concerns about what the impact of the Employee Health Tax will be on small business.

Policy Analyst Muriel Protzer says the EHT is a $2 billion dollar new tax on business owners across BC and what it is seeing is that a lot of those businesses paying are in fact small businesses.  “It’s becoming a lot more difficult right now for small businesses. That’s the sentiment that I’m starting to hear is that the accumulation of all these new costs that they’re having to absorb is too much all at once. Right now with the Employer Health Tax we really need to see some short term solutions to help lessen that burden.”

Protzer says there also needs to be a long term plan to phase it out. “This has been a really difficult tax for small business to absorb. Payroll taxes, which the Employer Health Tax is a payroll tax, are the most difficult type of taxes for small business to absorb. We know that from surveying small businesses.”

“Over 75,000 businesses we estimate are now paying this tax. And especially 2019, not only are they paying for the 50% of the remainder of that MSP cost they also have this new tax that they not only have to pay and somehow recover the cost, but in addition, sign up to pay this cost.”

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