Finance committee  For many of our members, anything that taxes their ability to hire a new employee or increase their wages is determined to be a tax. We understand there are technicalities, but for the employer who never receives any of the income back, it's not deferred income like it is for the

Finance committee  It's easy to see specifically who the licence goes to. We don't complain about licences as tax, but we do complain about them. If they're too expensive or if they are a cost of doing business that is prohibitive, then we do, I can assure you.

Finance committee  I think we're looking for a robust, healthy economy.

Finance committee  I'm not an economist, so I won't pick the number. That's typically not where CFIB lands itself. We are interested in raising the retirement income for Canadians, we just think there are options available other than doing it through a tax.

Finance committee  Certainly. Our top three, if you will, are to lower the small business tax rate; to not increase payroll taxes, specifically the CPP; and to consider looking at reducing the government's deficit through the public sector pension and public sector benefits situation that we are fa

Finance committee  We're in the throes of preparing our submissions to next year's budget, which will be substantial I can assure you, and I look forward to an opportunity to meet with you on that.

Finance committee  We limited our comments because of the limited time that we had at our disposal today and the fact that we were speaking to Bill C-4. I can tell you however that the situation you are referring to raised concerns among several of our members.

Finance committee  Yes, certainly. The importance of rate-setting can't be overestimated for small business owners. Knowing how much they're going to be paying in payroll taxes year to year is a critical component of their business planning and a really important component of the EI program as a wh

Finance committee  Yes, very much so. You'll see that we have data that supports it loud and clear. Many of our members appreciated the simplicity of the credit, in that they don't have to apply for it. It just comes when they qualify for it. CRA does the calculation and it comes to their account

Finance committee  Yes, certainly. Low tax rates, from our perspective, are a critical component, as you've said. We are interested in examining that further: that as the economy slowly starts to pick up, and as the government reduces its deficit, they look at lowering the small business tax rate e

Finance committee  Our membership tend to be fiscal hawks. They can't afford to carry deficits themselves, so they have a hard time when the government does it. Returning the budget to balance will be welcomed by them at that time.

Finance committee  The extension of the lifetime capital gains threshold has been an important component of succession planning for our small business members and especially the indexation to inflation, which keeps it current.

Finance committee  We always like to go to our members, as you know, on issues like this, but I can say that, for what we know to date, the stability of the rate is a critical component. Knowing from year to year and for seven years at a time what the rate will be is an important measure for our me

Finance committee  We are certainly in favour of ensuring that the account doesn't accumulate too much of a surplus. These projections are projections for right now, so we'll see what happens in 2015, 2016, and 2017, but we're not in favour of the accounts generating enormous surpluses. The way it'

Finance committee  I don't have those figures with me on that particular segment. I believe I promised them to the chair last week as well, so we are certainly looking into whether we can provide that. The reduction of the small business tax rate is an important component of reducing the overall ta