Bill
177, Stronger, Fairer Ontario Act (Budget Measures), 2017 was tabled on
November 14, 2017 and received Royal Assent on December 14, 2017. It includes changes regarding the Caregiver Credit, and
changes to the wording regarding the Seniors' Public Transit Tax Credit.
Ontario Health Insurance Plan+ (OHIP+):
Children and Youth Pharmacare
Starting on January 1, 2018, OHIP+: Children and
Youth Pharmacare will provide universal drug coverage to all children
and youth aged 24 and under, regardless of family income. It
will completely cover the cost of all medicines funded through the
Ontario Drug Benefit (ODB) Program. There will be no deductible
and no co-payment.
Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP)
This program is being changed to make postsecondary
education more accessible and affordable for Ontario students and
their families, including mature students.
Electricity Rates
Starting this summer, Ontario's proposed Fair Hydro Plan will
reduce electricity bills by 25% on average for eligible households, also
benefiting approximately 500,000 small businesses and farms. Effective
January 1, 2017, there will also be a rebate of the provincial portion of the
Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) for residential customers and eligible farm and small
business consumers.
Personal Tax Measures
Ontario Caregiver Tax Credit
(OCTC)
Ontario proposes to replace
the provincial caregiver and infirm dependant tax credits with a new
Ontario Caregiver Tax Credit (OCTC), similar to the Canada Caregiver
Tax Credit, beginning in the 2017 taxation year. The following
changes apply, and are reflected in the table of Non-refundable
Tax Credits for 2017:
The non-refundable OCTC will be available in respect of
relatives who are infirm dependants, including adult children of the
claimant or of the claimant's spouse or common-law partner, but will not
be available in respect of non-infirm senior parents or grandparents who
reside with the taxpayer.
Dependants will not be required to live with the
caregiver claiming the credit.
The amount of the credit will not change. The
threshold will be the same as the threshold for the former caregiver
amount tax credit. The OCTC will begin phasing out when the dependant's
net income exceeds $16,401, for 2017.
Seniors' Public Transit Tax Credit
This new tax credit will be available for the 2017 taxation
year for senior Ontarians aged 65 and older at the end of 2016. See our
article on the Seniors'
Public Transit Tax Credit.
Multijurisdictional Tax Filers
Amendments are proposed to change the way provincial
surtax and the Ontario Tax Reduction (OTR) are calculated for Ontario
residents who pay tax to another province, and non-residents of Ontario
who pay tax to Ontario, to ensure consistency between the surtax and OTR
treatment for multijurisdictional filers and other filers.
These changes will be effective for the 2017 and later taxation years.
The surtax will be calculated based on the total amount
of Ontario tax on taxable income. The total amount of tax payable,
including the surtax, will then be prorated based on the percentage of
income allocated to Ontario. The OTR amounts will also be prorated
based on the percentage of income allocated to Ontario. See Ontario
Tax Reduction on the Ontario website.
Other Proposed Tax Measures
amending the Taxation Act, 2007 to
parallel changes made to the federal small business deduction that would reduce
a company's Ontario business limit by the same amount the federal business limit
is reduced. This would apply if the company assigned any portion of its
business limit to another company under certain circumstances. See Corporate
Income Tax on the Ontario website.
granting municipalities the
authority to levy a hotel tax
changing the Fuel Tax Act so that
certain coloured biodiesel fuels could be sold tax-exempt when used for
specified purposes. See Fuel
Tax on the Ontario website.
eliminating the Employer Health
Tax (EHT) exemption for any employer that is a designated member of a
partnership, as defined in the Income Tax Act. This change would
take place no earlier than January 1, 2018, to provide opportunity for
feedback and consultation. See Employer
Health Tax on the Ontario website.
reviewing other methods and
structures by which some employers avoid paying EHT, to ensure EHT relief
is targeted to smaller employers.
increasing tobacco tax rates from
15.475 cents to 16.475 cents per cigarette or gram of tobacco products
other than cigars, effective 12:01 a.m. April 28, 2017. In both 2018
and 2019, tobacco taxes will be increased by an additional 2 cents per
cigarette or gram of tobacco. See Tobacco
Tax and About
Raw Leaf Tobacco on the Ontario website.
changes to modernize railway
right-of-way taxation
changes to reduce property tax
rates for eligible small-scale value-added and commercial activities on
farms
moving forward with Provincial
Land Tax (PLT) reform, to further support increased equity in taxation and
in how services are paid for in the north.
Other topics from the Ontario budget, on the Ontario
website: