RMT Clients Are Speaking Up

SEPTEMBER 8, 2017

We have been overwhelmed with the thoughtful responses our clients have prepared in response to the Liberal governments attack on entrepreneurs and will be releasing a series of those responses in the coming weeks.  Here is an example of a letter written to our clients MP and the Minister of Finance:

Dear Minister Morneau,

I write to you as a small business owner on a matter of great concern, the proposed changes to tax planning options for entrepreneurs.  Your department’s stated objective of eliminating all tax advantages that currently accrue to entrepreneurs is simply wrong and will result in serious damage to the small business and entrepreneurial community in this country.

I own and operate an advertising agency that serves the not-for-profit sector exclusively.  We help our charitable clients raise more money and recruit more donors and volunteers.  We do our best to keep our prices down, recognizing the important work that our clients do.  We are profit-making but not excessively so.  I employ almost 40 staff, for whom I pay CPP, Employment Insurance and Ontario's health tax in addition to their salaries.  I pay regular income taxes on the salary I draw from the business.

I also use some of the tax planning options that are currently available to entrepreneurs.  I do so to provide for my eventual retirement as I have no pension entitlements.  The most salient difference between my employees, indeed all employees, and I is the economic risks that I have taken personally to found and run a small business.  Even today, the bank requires my personal guarantee on any financing associated with my business.  The future of my family and I depends on the success of our business, and that is always far from a sure thing. 

Entrepreneurs like me don’t have the security of a pension or the protection of a union, but your department wants to characterize the few modest tax planning options I have access to as “tax loopholes” and seeks to do away with them. That is a shame.  I believe you and your government should be encouraging entrepreneurs and small-business operators and recognizing the fundamental differences between those who enjoy the security of a steady pay cheque and those of us who risk everything to build something worthwhile, a business that accomplishes something while employing others.

Please don’t allow your jealous bureaucrats to destroy the future prospects of Canada’s entrepreneurs.