Compliance Activities- Canada Revenue Agency meets Standing Committee on Finance

December 13, 2018

From the office of:

Blake Richards

Member of Parliament

Banff-Airdrie

I wanted to provide you with an update on the federal Government’s taxation rules regarding campgrounds.  Unfortunately, this Liberal government has decided to persist in waging war against small businesses. Many campgrounds continue to receive assessment notices from the CRA notifying them that they no longer qualify for the small business tax rate.

 Essentially, campgrounds are being told that they are “too small” to be a small business.  I have asked this Government multiple times to explain why they continue to unfairly target our campground owners, and the CRA minister and her officials have provided absolutely no reasoning.

 You can watch a video of my recent questions to CRA officials at the Finance Committee here.

 Further, as promised, I proposed a recommendation to the Pre-Budget Report in the liberal-dominated Finance Committee that would stop this unfair treatment, but, unfortunately, it was not included in the final report.

 Simply put, small businesses should not be penalized for being “too small”. As you know, campgrounds are active businesses, requiring a lot of work and they should qualify for the small business tax rate.

 They are an important part of our tourism industry, a billion dollar sector that creates hundreds of thousands of jobs across the country.

 It’s time for the Liberal government to recognize this and stop treating campgrounds unfairly. Please share this petition  http://www.blakerichards.ca/tax-fairness-campgrounds/to let the current Government know that this treatment is unfair.

 I will continue to fight for our campgrounds and the unfair tax raises that they are receiving.