Ontario, Quebec get failing grade on new provincial tax index
By CO Staff @canadaone | April 2, 2009
If you want to start a business in a province with the best provincial tax systems, you may want to look outside Ontario and Quebec. Both provinces got a failing grade and were ranked as the worst in the county on a new index developed by CFIB.
Sixty-five indicators in five major tax categories were used to determine a final ranking of 4.10 (Ontario) and 4.02 (Quebec) for Canada's two most populous provinces. Ten is a perfect score.
Alberta was the top scoring province with a score of 7.98, almost double that of Quebec. New Brunswick (6.32) and Saskatchewan (6.30) were also top ranking provinces.
"This type of research has never been conducted before, at least not for Canada," wrote Doug Bruce, Director of Research at CFIB.
The scoring, which examine provincial tax systems from the perspective of a small and medium sized business owner, takes factors in five major areas into account:
- premiums and payroll taxes;
- corporate income taxes;
- property and capital taxes;
- personal income taxes; and
- sales and excise taxes
Overall Index Scores, provincial tax systems, 2008 (0 is worst; 10 is best)
| overall score | premiums & payroll taxes | corporate income taxes | property & capital taxes | personal income taxes | sales & excise taxes | |
| Alberta | 7.98 | 8.4 | 7.6 | 6.4 | 7.9 | 9.6 |
| New Brunswick | 6.32 | 7.9 | 5.6 | 6.8 | 4.8 | 6.0 |
| Saskatchewan | 6.30 | 8.5 | 6.8 | 6.0 | 6.4 | 2.7 |
| British Columbia | 5.72 | 7.0 | 6.4 | 5.0 | 6.9 | 2.5 |
| Manitoba | 5.60 | 6.7 | 6.9 | 5.2 | 3.8 | 4.6 |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | 5.45 | 5.2 | 6.3 | 7.9 | 3.9 | 3.4 |
| Prince Edward Island | 5.24 | 7.6 | 5.3 | 7.2 | 3.9 | 1.0 |
| Nova Scotia | 5.08 | 7.7 | 4.6 | 4.1 | 4.1 | 3.9 |
| Ontario | 4.10 | 4.8 | 3.1 | 3.3 | 5.0 | 4.4 |
| Quebec | 4.02 | 3.9 | 3.5 | 5.3 | 1.9 | 5.6 |
View the full report on CFIB's website.
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