In the pursuit of helping manufacturers reduce their cost of doing business while encouraging innovation, we set out to see how we can improve the tax landscape. We gathered insights from two categories of stakeholders:
1. Influential players in the tax industry including members of CME’s tax committee and major tax firms such as KPMG and BDO with massive client bases in manufacturing.
2. Major players in the manufacturing sector including Ford, Arcellor Mittall Dafasco, Estee Lauder, Festo, AGS Automotive and others.
After months of correspondence and a series of round tables, we had gathered enough qualitative and quantitative data to make a compelling case for more favourable tax reform.
Our goal was simple: we wanted to give Canadian manufacturers a 100% first year tax write-off on a wide range of capital investments including machinery and equipment. This would be a sizeable increase, which our research showed would fuel greater investment in innovation and infrastructure for the sector.
Our lobbying efforts were laser focused on the Ministry of Finance, with additional support garnered from the Ministry of Innovation Science & Economic Development. We carefully crafted and submitted several compelling documents that made our case difficult to refuse:
1. An official letter from Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters, outlining the economics of our argument including maintaining competitiveness with the US by reducing the cost of doing business and fueling innovation.
2. A coalition letter with signatures of support from Executives and Directors of 20 influential industry associations including the Canadian Plastics Industry Association, Canadian Institute of Steel Construction, Automotive Industries Association of Canada, BIOTECanada, Food & Consumer Products of Canada, and others.
3. A detailed pre-budget report prepared by our tax committee to illustrate the financial viability of the reform we were after.
Our multi pronged approach paid off. We were able to influence the financially beneficial tax reform we were after for Canadian manufacturers. You can read about the new changes in greater detail here.
After extensive quantitative and qualitative research and a compelling lobbying campaign, we were able to convince the Federal Government to implement tax reform with a major financial benefit to both SMEs and LMEs in the country’s manufacturing and energy sectors.
The new laws will grant manufacturers and energy producers a full 100% first-year Capital Cost Allowance on a wide array of equipment purchases, incentivizing continued economic growth and innovation.
