B.C.B次元官网网址檚 budget deficit is currently pegged at a record $12.5 billion, as the NDP government faces the beginning of a wave of business closures due to the COVID-19.

ThatB次元官网网址檚 four times the size of the last big deficit in 2012, when the B.C. Liberal government had to buy its way out of a rejected harmonized sales tax deal with Ottawa. And current B.C. Liberal leader Andrew Wilkinson has repeatedly proposed bringing it up to $15 billion, by forgiving the first 90 days of deferred taxes that Finance Minister Carole James has set for repayment by the end of September.

Collected but not remitted sales and hotel taxes, along with the governmentB次元官网网址檚 new employer health tax on payrolls, will total about $5 billion by fall, Wilkinson told the B.C. legislature July 15. Businesses who have been B次元官网网址渞unning on fumesB次元官网网址� for four months arenB次元官网网址檛 going to be able to repay it, he said.

James kept the door open to extending the repayment deadline, but has not commented on granting the tax holiday that Wilkinson has argued for in a series of letters to Premier John Horgan. The repayment schedule will be reviewed B次元官网网址渨ell before we get to Sept. 30,B次元官网网址� James said in question period.

B次元官网网址淚B次元官网网址檓 afraid that kind of answer will be cold comfort to the thousands of businesses that are facing huge tax-deferred bills coming due this September, for which the minister refuses to provide an answer,B次元官网网址� replied Abbotsford West MLA Mike de Jong, who preceded James as finance minister. B次元官网网址淔amilies are facing work uncertainty or outright unemployment.B次元官网网址�

RELATED:

RELATED:

The Business Council of B.C. has not endorsed the idea of a tax holiday, but it is calling for an extension of the payment deadline through 2020 and a staged repayment plan that could extend to the end of 2021.

B次元官网网址淲ith a very slow economic recovery and the enormous damage inflicted on many economic sectors by the virus and the measures taken to contain it, we believe there is a strong argument for extending the 2020 tax deferrals until the end of the year,B次元官网网址� BCBC chief policy officer Jock Finlayson told Black Press Media July 16. B次元官网网址淲e are not recommending an extension beyond that point.B次元官网网址�

With an uncertain future for the COVID-19 pandemic, which has plunged B.C. government revenues as spending has ramped up, accumulated debt is also a key factor.

B次元官网网址淔rom an accounting perspective, the government is not B次元官网网址榣osing revenueB次元官网网址� with tax deferrals,B次元官网网址� Finlayson said. B次元官网网址� Rather, it receives the money due with a delay. The only cost to the treasury is the interest paid on the extra short-term debt B次元官网网址� which today is substantially less than one per cent. So there is very little impact on the size of the deficit.B次元官网网址�

tfletcher@blackpress.ca
Like us on and follow us on .