Conservatives release Opportunity Plan for Small Business

07 December 2005

Lowering taxes and creating apprenticeship positions

SAINT JOHN – Conservative leader Stephen Harper today released the Conservative Party’s Opportunity Plan for Small Business, a package that will lower small business taxes and create apprenticeship positions.
“Canada needs small business,” said Harper. “But more importantly, small business needs a government in Ottawa that’s on the side of people who work for themselves.”

The Conservative plan will raise the threshold for the small business tax rate from $300,000 to $400,000 and reduce the small business tax rate from 12 per cent to 11 per cent over five years. A Conservative government will reduce job-killing business taxes to create employment and encourage economic growth.
These changes will assist small businesses as they grow, allowing them to earn more income before they start paying the corporate income tax rate.

To create apprenticeship positions, the Conservatives will establish an Apprenticeship Job Creation Tax Credit. This credit will be an incentive for employers to hire new apprentices in designated fields. It will reduce their tax by 10 per cent of the wages paid to apprentices for two years, to a maximum of $2,000 per apprentice per year.

“The Liberals have spent 12 years making powerful insiders better off,” Harper said. “A Conservative government will make independent businesses, apprentices and small business employees better off.”

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