Rollback on proposed tax changes is good news for farm families

OTTAWA, October 19, 2017 — The Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA) commends the Government of Canada on today’s announcement that it will halt and reconsider a series of proposed tax reforms that would have led to severe negative impacts for family farm businesses.

As the country’s largest general farmers’ organization, CFA advocated for these changes through a grassroots lobby campaign and formal appearances before the House of Commons finance committee, as well as in activities during the government’s consultation period.

“Farmers are pleased to see that Minister Morneau listened to concerns from CFA and other groups and, as a result, decided against plans to limit the lifetime capital gains exemption and options to convert income to capital gains,” said CFA President Ron Bonnett. “Both measures would have led to enormous complexity and added costs for inter-generational farm transfers and could’ve even encouraged farmers to sell their businesses to non-family members.”

Government announcements made earlier this week regarding a simplified reasonableness test and a minimum threshold on the taxation of passive investment income also appear to be steps in the right direction. CFA will study the final proposals once legislation is tabled in Parliament, and looks forward to working with Finance Canada to ensure further issues are adequately addressed.

“Budget 2017 identified Canadian agriculture as a sector primed for growth based on the bright economic outlook for thousands of small, family-owned farm operations. There is clearly more work ahead in terms of shaping policies to ensure we can meet the government’s target of reaching $75 billion in agriculture and agri-food exports by 2025, but farmers are up for the challenge,” added Bonnett.

CFA will continue its outreach efforts with elected officials from all parties, and all departments with a link to agriculture, and will work to make certain that farmers’ perspectives are included as part of the policy development process.


Related:


Media Contact:

Janice Hall
CFA Director of Communications
Phone: 613-236-3633 ext. 2322
Email: communications@canadian-farmers.ca