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Thursday, M ay 21, 2015 - The IFP - H alton H ills - w w w .theifp.ca Page 7 Furnace Air Conditioning Gaslines Boilers Water Heaters Radiant Heating 905-877-3100 proud local dealer of Canadian made products .ca Time to Move? Call Derek CallDerek.ca 905-877-8262 Derek Dunphy Sales Representative • Truck Accessories • Upholstery • Heavy Equipment Glass •Window Tinting 354 Guelph Street, Georgetown 905-873-1655 We handle all insurance work. COMMENT The way we were The Glen Band is seen here dressed for a Calithumpian parade in the early 1900s. Text courtesy of Heritage Halton Hills; photo courtesy of Esquesing Historical Society Music makers Ross Pezzack took this photo of a butterfly enjoying the spring sunshine on the Bruce Trail near Speyside. Have a photo you want to share? Email cgamble@theifp.ca FUN IN THE SUN From our readers Small businesses are the heart of the country, community Small businesses are the backbone of Canada's economy and the cornerstone of our local communities. Averaging less than 100 employees, small businesses employ over seven million Canadians and contribute to almost 40 per cent of Cana- da's GDP. In Halton Hills, 91 per cent of businesses have 10 employees or fewer. The federal government understands the important contribution that Canadian small businesses make to our local communities. In Canada, over 90 per cent of Canadian businesses are classified as a small or me- dium size business. That is why the federal govern- ment has made it a priority to reduce taxes and elimi- nate costly red tape for small businesses. To date, the government has reduced the small business tax rate from 12 to 11 per cent and increased the maximum amount of revenue that a business can have to qualify for the lower small busi- ness tax rate from $400,000 to $500,000. This is in addition to maintaining a freeze on Employment Insurance premiums. As a result, small businesses have had their taxes reduced by 34 per cent. For ex- ample, a business with a taxable income of $500,000 has had its annual taxes re- duced by almost $28,600 since 2006. The government has also reduced the number of payments and filings that busi- nesses have to prepare and submit to the Canada Revenue Agency. Since 2006, the government has cut red tape by reducing the maximum number of payments that more than 50,000 busi- nesses have to prepare and submit to the Canada Revenue Agency, eliminating the requirement for more than 800,000 pay- ments. In addition, the government has combined two federal and provincial cor- porate tax returns into one federal return. The recent federal budget builds upon these achieve- ments. The government recognize that taxes absorb dollars that can be used by business own- ers to invest in plant, capital and equipment. The federal budget will reduce the small business tax rate from 11 per cent to 9 per cent by 2019, cre- ating the largest tax rate cut for small business in more than 25 years. This will allow small businesses to retain more earnings that can be used to reinvest and create jobs. In addition, the federal budget propos- es to amend the Canada Small Business Financing Act to raise the small business eligibility criteria from firms with gross annual revenues of $5 million or less to firms with gross annual revenues of $10 million or less. Furthermore, federal budget proposes to increase the Lifetime Capital Gains Ex- emption from $800,000 to $1 million for farmers, who are an important part of our local small business economy. This will allow farmers to maintain more of their capital for retirement. For more information on assistance for small business in federal budget, please do not hesitate to contact my office at (866) 878-5556 or by e-mail at michael. chong@parl.gc.ca. MICHAEL CHONG