Business carbon ‘rebate’ now taxable ‘gov’t assistance’ benefit: CFIB

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OTTAWA — Apparently it’s not a tax refund — but “government assistance.”

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Amid word that the federal government’s long awaited $2.5-billion small business carbon tax rebate would finally arrive in December, business owners and organizations say plans to classify the rebate as taxable income flies in the face of assurances that the program would be revenue neutral.

Dan Kelly, president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB,) told The Toronto Sun news that the rebate would be taxed, contradicts what the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) had earlier said.

“When the government announced in the budget that it was the intention to finally return, five years later, the money that it had started to collect in carbon taxes from small business, one of the very first questions we asked is, ‘Would this be taxable?’” Kelly said.

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In response, the CRA told the CFIB that it was their expectation that the program would be modelled after the Canada Carbon Rebate — formerly the Climate Action Incentive Payment — and not taxed.

All that changed last month when the Department of Finance decreed rebates owed to small businesses would indeed be taxed.

“This is a tax refund that you’re getting from the government,” Kelly said, comparing it to the government wanting to take a piece of the income tax refunds issued in the spring.

“It makes no sense whatsoever.”

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Upon contacting the Department of Finance, Kelly said the CFIB were told the payments are officially being considered “government assistance to small business,” rather a tax rebate.

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Indeed, the federal government promised in the 2024 budget that it would “directly return over $2.5 billion in proceeds from the price on pollution” to around 600,000 Canadian small and medium businesses via an “accelerated and automated return process.”

This reversal, Kelly said, flies in the face of claims by the Trudeau government that the carbon tax is revenue neutral.

“We estimate that businesses are getting back about a quarter of what they pay in carbon tax, so this is not 100% rebate to most businesses,” Kelly said.

“This is going to be a small portion of the carbon tax they’re going to get back, so that’s hardly government assistance.”

Invitations for comment to the Department of Finance weren’t returned by press time.

bpassifiume@postmedia.com
X: @bryanpassifiume

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