HONGKONG companies in Canada have warned the Premier of British Columbia, Mr Mike Harcourt, that tax increases and failure to adequately amend a corporate tax will hamper his efforts to drum up investment for Canada during a visit to Hongkong.
The British Columbia (BC) provincial budget, delivered yesterday, revealed increased taxes on the profits of larger companies, on higher income earners and most consumer goods.
The higher taxes are intended to help fund spending on health care, education and infrastructure.
The move would cause concern among both domestic and foreign investors, said the vice-president of the Hongkong Bank of Canada, Mr David Bond.
The budget was also criticised by Hongkong firms which were earlier promised that all companies in BC would receive a break in the 0.3 per cent corporate capital tax levied against companies with registered assets in access of C$1 million (about HK$6 million).
Instead of raising the threshold to the C$10 million level implemented by the federal government, or to a level rumoured to be about C$5 million, the New Democratic Party (NDP) announced it would begin taxing companies with principal investments of more than C$1.25 million.