"Anyone that wants to build a, a new factory in this country, whether it’s a American firm or a foreign firm, why don't we give them a, a five-year tax holiday? It doesn't cost anything, right? You’re just deferring the tax revenues that you would ordinary get, but meanwhile you get a factory and you get jobs, and everybody wins."
The above quote is attributed to Paul Otellini (President and CEO Intel) and was found at NPR in a post discussing the organization's liberal bias.
NPR interests me less than the quote itself.
As you may or may not recall, since I started posting my 'Daycare Updates' one of the observations I made early in my business adventure was the amount of taxes new businesses have to fork over.
It struck me then and strikes me now as faulty logic.
Why not provide businesses with a 12, 24 or 36 month grace period of paying no taxes? After all, is it not the best interest of everyone (business owner, proprietor of land, municipality, province, employees, community etc.) if the business succeeds? Perhaps the state doesn't collect up front but is it not more beneficial to think about the long-term?
On my renovation costs alone I forked over $15 000 in taxes I was not allowed to claim back. Do you realize what $15 000 is to a new business? I look at this way: $15 000 less in my pocket ergo $15 000 I have to, in theory, go fetch back in due time. During that period, it slows down my enterprise and ambition (e.g open a second daycare).
We all work within a framework and it is true it has not stopped businesses from expanding. But what people don't see is the time and costs lost to deferring the expansion.
Every second and penny counts, no?
For example, levying payroll taxes on a new enterprise is wasteful. In its early stages, the majority of businesses operate with losses. Charging taxes on top of that only makes it that much more difficult to reach profitability; it defers it.
It's little things like this that help small businesses. These are the creative ideas badly needed to change our archaic views on entrepreneurship.
I laugh my ass off whenever I hear politicians in Quebec or the USA claim they're "not anti-business." Maybe in their minds they may not think so but in their actions they are.
Quebec is horrible at nurturing an innovative entrepreneurial class.
And with the PQ in power, it will only stagger further.
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