BC's Finance Minister Mike de Jong introduced BC's
Budget and Fiscal Plan 2014/15 (the "Budget") on February
18. He has described it as a "boring, balanced budget".
That appears to be a fair characterization, although the proposals
for the LNG income tax will not be boring for those working in that
industry. Below we describe the Budget's pertinent income tax,
PST, and property tax measures.
Before getting into the detailed tax measures, we note that the
Budget forecasts a surplus of $184 million for 2014/15, with only a
slightly larger surplus of $206 million for the following 2015/16.
The Budget documents acknowledge how small the forecast surplus is
at only 0.5% of forecasted revenues of $44.8 billion, and as a
result the BC government must "proactively monitor its fiscal
plan to ensure budget targets are achieved." The forecasted
surplus assumes that there is "no additional funding for the
teachers' contract pending the outcome of the appeal regarding
the recent
