City Amongst Top Places to do Business
A recent study by KPMG, a leading professional services firm specializing in audit, tax and advisory services, finds that the City of St. John's is one of the top places to do business in Canada.
"This comes as no real surprise to us," says Mayor Dennis O'Keefe. "St. John's is a tremendous place to do business and the level of development and growth of our economy over the past few years shows tremendous optimism on the part of the business community."
In the report, entitled 'Competitive Alternatives: Special Report: Focus on Tax', St. John's ranked fourth for total effective tax rate out of the 16 featured Canadian. The report looked at three key areas:
- Corporate Income Tax
- Other Corporate Taxes (Including sales tax, property tax, wage-based tax, corporate income tax, capital taxes and local business taxes.)
- Statutory Labour Costs
The Total Tax Index had St. John's ranked fourth with an index of 45.4 out of 113 cities featured worldwide.
"From a taxation perspective, St. John's is extremely competitive in the Canadian business market," says Councillor Danny Breen, Chair, Finance and Administration Standing Committee. "Amongst the world's biggest economies we have one of the lowest tax burdens. This should certainly help us attract new business in the future and retain businesses which currently call St. John's home."
Canada as a whole came out very favourably in the report as well, with a tax burden 40 per cent lower than the United States, which was the report benchmark. Overall Canada was the second most tax competitive country and placed first overall when looking at mature markets only.
For further information:
Jennifer Mills
Communications Officer
City of St. John's
Phone: (709) 570-2037
Cell: (709) 690-7586
E-mail: jmills@stjohns.ca
Dennis O'Keefe
Mayor
City of St. John's
Phone: (709) 576-8477
E-mail: dokeefe@stjohns.ca
Danny Breen
Ward 1 Councillor
Chair, Finance and Administration Committee
City of St. John's
Phone: (709) 576-2332
E-mail: dbreen@stjohns.ca