“The main obstacles to business growth were taxes and regulation (61%)”

Which taxes? Sales tax? Property tax? Business income tax?

Which regulations? No enough of them geared to protect businesses? Too many? People in business were not updating themselves on regulations, expecting them to stay the same from when granddaddy opened up the business after he came back from the war?

Or better still, the kids being too lazy to learn when they took over the business because the teahers kept on telling them how well little Johnny was doing ….. when little Johnny was not doing to well at all.

Property taxes are a large factor, gus. In my business the annual property tax bill now is over twice what I initially paid for the property. And continues upward, year after year.

That kind of tax bears no relationship to the income a business can earn, it’s levied on an arbitrary assessment of what the property and improvements are supposed to be worth as of a certain date each year if they were sold.

It’s in the nature of an ever increasing charge that has to be met whether the business is able to increase its sales or not, just for the continued privilege of saying you ‘own’ a piece of property.

Which brings us to the ‘regulations’. Many of which in regards to zoning and land use planning give those who enact and enforce them more rights over ‘your’ property than you have yourself. This strangles small businesses. It forces them to either quit before they fail, or become large businesses ~ often too large to cost effectively serve the market they’re trying to serve. Which doesn’t grow proportionately. And in the end, they still fail. WE all pay a very high price for that.

gus, obviously you have never owned or operated a business. Where to start, hmm!

Business Licence, business insurance including property insurance, fire insurance, liability insurance etc.

Property taxes, payroll taxes including employers contributions to CPP and Worksafe, etc.

Cost of equipment and maintenance, salaries, costs of goods and materials, office supplies, vehicles, heat, light, internet, etc.

After all of that is done, hopefully there is enough left over for the business owner to actually have a profit to take home, pay my own personal bills and with any luck have something left to put aside for retirement!

In my business, I now spend an inordinant amount of time dealing with regulations and paperwork. Compliance this and compliance that and on and on it goes!

Do I dare raise my prices and risk pissing off my customer base, most of which already makes more than I do, or do I just keep sucking it up until I end up broke. That’s not an option because I don’t even qualify for EI benefits. Hang in there or shut things down, look for a job somewhere else or go on welfare.

It’s not unreasonable to ask government to stay out of my life, stop making more and more stupid rules and regulations and let me get on with creating jobs and adding to the economy!

How to start a small business? Buy a big business and let the government help you run it. Why start a small business when you have the bank and three levels of government doing evrything they can to stop you from succeeding? Prove me wrong.

so much for getting rid of hst chasing away all the business in BC.

The City is trying to sell off the properties that they own in the downtown area. Rather puzzeling when the small busines owner has to pay 27% taxes on their property and heavey industry pays a pitense?
Cheers

Just wait until the NDP get in……..if they get in!

Small business start ups have been in terminal decline for the last thirty years.

In that time regressive taxation has replaced progressive taxation and many small businesses now find they are paying an ever increasing tax burden regardless if they are making profits, or still building the business… property taxes, GST, PST, HST, user fees, and the big small business nemisis carbon taxes… all regressive taxes regardless of revenue or profits, all implemented to replace profit taxes on a progressive scale on income (ie after costs income).

The monopoly capitalists are killing small business with their tax transfer policies. Small business continues to think their interests are aligned with monopoly capitalists through groups like the Chamber of Commerce and in reality the barriers are being erected against the entrepreneurial small business free enterprise economy more and more everyday from the right and the left.

Its the regressive taxation that is killing new small business startups and this in turn is downsizing our ability to create jobs and above all economic freedom.

Hmm, CFIB, aren’t they the same bunch who wants to have no minimum wage? I recall them saying at one time, that if businesses could pay $1.00 and hour, it would immediately create 100,000 jobs.

They’ve got a nice little racket going, my2bits. Very self-serving.

Yes, NoWay. I am waiting for the NDP to get in so the “Liberals” (sic) can blame them for the fallout of past decisions. It is always thus.

“Do I dare raise my prices and risk pissing off my customer base, most of which already makes more than I do, or do I just keep sucking it up until I end up broke. That’s not an option because I don’t even qualify for EI benefits. Hang in there or shut things down, look for a job somewhere else or go on welfare.”

Jeez, you’re a regular working class hero. As already mentioned, if you think governmnt is out to crush you, think what your real enemy, Big Business, is trying to do. The corporations, to whoe tune the government of the day typically dances, are the ones who are really out to get you as you pose the greatest risk to their profit margin.

Another factor, sadly, is the penchant people in this town have for spending their money in big box stores when they can often find the same thing for fractionally more in the local business run by the guy or gal next door trying to make a living. “Think global, buy local”, folks.