The Surrey Board of Trade is calling for a comprehensive review of Canada’s tax system as businesses spend 131 hours on average preparing and paying taxes.

Anita Huberman, the board’s CEO, says local businesses are frustrated with having to dedicate significant time and expense to this as it results in more than three weeks of “wasted productivity, when other countries do it in half the time.

“In Surrey, where the most number of manufacturing businesses are in B.C., a thriving health and technology industry in addition to a diverse industry sector, the red tape of taxation, the cost to navigate through a burdensome tax system are making us uncompetitive, locally and globally,” she warned.

READ ALSO: Government red tape choking Surrey businesses, survey indicates

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Huberman says the Surrey Board of Trade is adding its voice to hundreds of other chambers of commerce and boards of trade calling for a review.

“Fifty years of cutting and pasting has left Canada’s tax system uncompetitive and inefficient,” she says. “By any measure, Canada’s tax system is a failure to Canadians and the businesses that employ them, deterring investment and the attraction of top talent. Our message to politicians is clear: we need a Royal Commission on tax, with everything on the table, to help ensure Canadian companies can grow and compete.”

The “outdated” tax system is having a significant impact on local businesses, Huberman says, and “we cannot afford to keep kicking the can down the road with half measures that further complicate the system.

“We need a new system, built from the ground up, for the realities of today and economy of tomorrow.”



tom.zytaruk@surreynowleader.com

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