By Cariboo-Chilcotin MLA Donna Barnett

NDP’s EHT is unfair in more ways than one

Jan 30, 2019 | 3:30 PM

IT’S NO SECRET THE NDP government has bungled a number of the 19 new or increased taxes it’s imposed on taxpayers since taking office about a year and a half ago.

The NDP’s poorly thought-out Speculation Tax is one example. Recently, those living in areas affected by the tax learned they’ll be getting a letter saying it’s on them to declare themselves a principal resident of their home and not a speculator — or as I see it, that they’re ‘guilty until proven innocent.’ It’s ridiculous, and a total waste of time and money considering 1.6 million letters will go out for an estimated 32,000 payers of the tax. And this backwards process will unfold every single year.

It’s also unsettling because if you’re like me, you toss a lot of unfamiliar mail in the junk bin. So if someone in one of these households happened to do that with this declaration form, and neglect to spend the 20 to 30 minutes the government estimates it will take to fill it out — a big fat tax bill will be coming their way. What a way to treat honest, hard-working British Columbians who are the furthest thing from speculators.

And then there’s the government’s Employer Health Tax (EHT) which is rife with problems as well. It’s a payroll tax on businesses that will replace MSP premiums. Well, not in 2019 — that’s when businesses who already pay MSP premiums for their employees will experience a ‘double dip’ courtesy of the government. That’s because those MSP premiums won’t be phased out until 2020. The government could have waited until then to impose the EHT, but decided to hit these businesses with a double-whammy this year instead.

Finance Minister Carole James has repeatedly tried to assure business owners that there’s nothing to worry about — that only one per cent of employers will be subject to the EHT. But we’ve just picked up on yet another troubling aspect of this tax that calls that claim into question.

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The government has been saying that the EHT will be paid only by companies with payrolls over $500,000. But they haven’t been telling the whole story. It turns out that if you own two or more different business operations, the payrolls for each will be combined — increasing the likelihood that you’ll surpass that $500,000 threshold and now be subject to the tax.

With both the EHT and Speculation Tax, the NDP government is trying to paint the picture that they’re going after people with loaded pockets, who can afford to pay ‘a little bit more’ – but in reality, they’re mostly targeting hard-working British Columbians who are loyal to their communities and contribute a lot to our economy. It’s unfair and it’s wrong. They deserve better than that.