Under the reign of the CAQ government of François Legault, businesses “benefit” from significantly more advantageous tax treatment than in 2017, the last full year of the former liberal government of Philippe Couillard.
All of the 85 tax measures intended for Quebec businesses will “bring them back” in this year 2023 tax savings of some 6.02 billion dollars, or 2.67 billion more than in 2017. We are talking here about an increase in tax benefits of around 80%.
To allow you to fully appreciate this 80% increase in “CAQ tax generosity” towards businesses, know that between 2017 and 2023, tax measures intended for individuals will allow taxpayers to save 37.2 % more Quebec tax than in 2017.
In percentage terms, corporate tax relief has therefore grown at twice the rate of tax relief and financial support for individuals.
Among the measures to reduce the tax burden on businesses, the CAQ government is offering this year:
- $1.92 billion in reduced contribution rates to the Health Services Fund for SMEs
- $1.35 billion in corporate capital gains tax exemption
- $648 million in loss carryovers other than the $87 million for capital losses
- $489 million in refundable tax credits for scientific research and experimental development
- $371 million in tax credit relating to investment and innovation
- $363 million in refundable credit for the production of multimedia titles
- $595 million credit for the development of e-business
- $171 million refundable tax credit for film productions
Over 10 years
In addition to the 85 tax measures intended for businesses established in Quebec, there is a range of subsidies and loans granted by the government to businesses. In his article on Monday, my colleague Sylvain Larocque calculated that this government aid alone represented a bill of 4 billion dollars over 10 years.
But in terms of tax measures offered to them by the Quebec government, the amount of tax savings received by businesses amounts to the majestic sum of $43.7 billion, or 10 times more than the “bill » subsidies and loans granted to businesses.
Tax measures include:
- Tax credits and other incentives: $24.3 billion
- Tax harmonization measures with the federal government: $17.8 billion
- Other tax expenditures: $1.6 billion
Under the caquists
It was during the last five years (2019 to 2023) under the Legault government that there was a real boom in tax generosity towards companies established in Quebec.
Of the 43.7 billion in tax savings granted over the last 10 years to businesses, some 26.7 billion (57%) were granted under the reign of the CAQ.
This is $9.7 billion more than during the five years in power of the former Liberal government of Philippe Couillard. During the period from 2014 to 2018, companies shared 17 billion in tax savings.
This demonstrates that François Legault, our ex-accountant prime minister, and his two strong men in finance, namely the ex-businessman Pierre Fitzgibbon (the superminister of the Economy, Innovation and Energy ) and ex-banker Eric Girard (the Minister of Finance), have followed through on economic ideas by wanting to make Quebec as attractive as possible for businesses.