Government Regulations are driving me crazy!

Tweet

I live in BC, Canada and am trying to operate a small business. The government is doing it's best here to make this as difficult as humanly possible. There are so many rules and regulations to follow. I recently read an article in a local paper that had some very interesting facts in it. Some of the things that were mentioned is that you must purchase a business licence for each and every municipality or town that you want to work in. This one poor fellow lives on the lower mainland, and as he performs work (he is a self employed arborist) in 4 different communities, he must purchase a business licence to work in each. The cost of each licence is $200! This is so unfair to small businesses. Even if he only works once per year in these places, he still has to pay for the licence because if he gets caught doing business without one, it is a $500 fine. This is ridiculous! They gave three examples of our bonkers bureaucracy: One business was assessed $4500 in penalties and fines by the Canada Revenue Agency because it didn't remit its payroll taxes at a financial institution. Instead, the bill was paid 7 days in advance at a CRA Tax centre. The staff at the CRA Tax centre didn't realize that they were no longer to accept payments in person. A fabric store was fined $93,000 for following a government bulletin which instructed not to charge PST (provincial sales tax) on cloth suitable for clothing. The auditor informed the store's owner that cloth suitable for clothing is taxable if customers are using it to make quilts. An Okanagan wine bar was denied a business licence because it didn't have its own parking lot. The business was located in a hotel that did have plenty of excess parking. This is bordering on insanity!!! The economy in BC is tanking and small business employs alot of our people. The article goes on to state that red tape is costing about 4.8 billion a year! The average company who employs 100 or more people, pays about $1117 per person to comply with the thousands of rules and regulations. Small business is paying about $6537 per employee. When is the government going to realize that they are cutting their own throats? Isn't it about time that they gave small business a break? What it the economic picture like for small business where you live? Do you feel that your government supports you in your endeavors or makes it difficult to survive?