On March 20, 2024, the Honourable Donna Harpauer, Deputy Premier and Minister of Finance, presented Saskatchewan’s 2024 budget. Titled “Classrooms, Care and Communities” and projecting a deficit of approximately $273 million, this year’s budget touts record investment in education and healthcare, as well as significant spending on municipal support and affordability measures.
While the budget includes no new taxes or tax increases, several interesting tax measures were announced, as summarized below.
Commodity Tax Measures
Consumption Tax and Remittance Obligations
The province announced that it will implement changes designed to encourage registered vendors to remit consumption taxes collected from customers. Amendments to The Revenue and Financial Services Act will be introduced this spring to enhance the province’s collection arsenal, increase penalties, help prevent tax avoidance, clarify compliance obligations, and increase monitoring. These measures will be aimed at vendors that repeatedly fail to remit provincial consumption taxes as required.
Previously Announced Measures
This year’s budget also highlights several previously announced measures intended to alleviate affordability concerns for Saskatchewan families, including:
- Removal of the federal carbon tax from gas and electricity home heating costs, effective January 1, 2024; and
- Introduction of a Provincial Sales Tax Rebate for New Home Construction Program, retroactive to April 1, 2023.
Corporate Income Tax Measures
Extension of Small Business Tax Rate
The province announced that it will maintain its small business tax rate at 1% for eligible business income up to $600,000 until June 30, 2025, extending this preferential rate for an additional year.
New and Enhanced Tax Credits
The budget also announced the introduction of a few new corporate tax credits and various enhancements to existing incentives, including proposed measures to:
- Expand eligibility, double the annual cap, and extend the end date for the Saskatchewan Technology Start-up Incentive tax credit;
- Extend the application intake period for the Saskatchewan Petroleum Innovation Incentive tax credit to March 31, 2029;
- Create Saskatchewan Critical Mineral Innovation Incentive and Critical Minerals Processing Investment Incentive tax credit programs for eligible investments related to value-added processing, resource recovery, by-product commercialization, and managing the environmental impact of high-potential and emerging critical minerals mining;
- Extend the application period for the Saskatchewan Commercial Innovation Incentive tax rate reduction to June 30, 2025, and conduct a review of the program with a view to identifying further opportunities to encourage commercialization;
- Extend the Oil and Gas Processing Investment Incentive tax credit program to March 31, 2029, and remove helium and lithium from the list of eligible commodities under the program; and
- Implement a Multi-lateral Well Program, which will provide a crown royalty and freehold production tax incentive for qualifying types of new wells drilled between April 1, 2024, and March 31, 2028.
More Information
Further information on Saskatchewan's 2024 budget may be found on the province’s website.
To read key updates from all of Canada’s 2024 provincial budgets, please visit our Key Changes | 2024 Canadian Federal and Provincial Budgets page.
If you have any questions about how changes proposed in recent Canadian budgets might impact your organization, please do not hesitate to contact the Ryan TaxDirect® line at 1.800.667.1600 or taxdirect@ryan.com.
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- Saskatchewan