On April 25 Gerald Keddy, Parliamentary Secretary to Kerry-Lynne D. Findlay, the Minister of National Revenue had a meeting with representatives of Merit Nova Scotia, a contractor organization from Nova Scotia. During the event he underlined measures, taken by Canadian Government to support small and mid-sized business, including creation of new jobs, professional skills training and motivation of skilled workers.

The Government of Canada encourages small companies and enterprises to create skillful labor force by hiring unqualified workers for apprenticeships. For this purpose Canadian Government developed a complex of measures to motivate employers and business-owners. It includes the apprenticeship job creation tax credit, incentive allowances and grants. Skilled workers and apprentices are also entitled to extra tax benefit. The Canada Apprentice Loan highlighted in Economic Action Plan 2014 suggests the enhancement of measures towards professional skills training. According to this project, apprentices will be able to receive non-interest loans amounting to more than $100 million to pay for their apprenticeships.

In order to cut the red tape and decrease its influence on small businesses the Government of Canada has taken a number of steps starting from 2006. During the meeting Gerald Keddy mentioned several service improvements, which are currently implemented by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). Since April, 2014 businesses may use tax preparation software when filling out T2 income tax and benefit returns, while business representatives are allowed to send electronic requests for authorization. New service that is going to be introduced by the Canada Revenue Agency in October, 2014 will let taxpayers monitor and update their direct deposit and bank information in online mode. Currently the Government is reconsidering the limits of remittances for employer deductions, which will allow cutting the red tape and decreasing the amount of transfers from businesses to the CRA.

Interesting Facts

135 owners of the construction and contactor companies, which operate in various spheres of construction industry form Merit Nova Scotia organization.

Over the last 20 years dozens of small and medium construction companies have been served by Merit Nova Scotia, which gave them an opportunity to develop their business in Nova Scotia.

Business owners will be able to use free online service to make tax payments and watch the history of payments through My Business Account.

The apprenticeship job creation tax credit offered to business owners amounts to 10% of the apprentices’ salaries only if they were hired after May 1, 2006. An employer may request no more than $2,000 of tax credit annually for every apprentice he has employed.

As for 2012, $77 million of the apprenticeship job creation tax credits were reported by 13,700 business owners in their tax returns.