Nova Scotia’s budget has now been introduced. Rather than have you search through the budget yourself, Global News has combed through it to find five things that will affect you in the coming year.
Nova Scotia is reducing taxes for more than 500,000 people
Some Nova Scotians are going to be saving money on their taxes next year, especially if you’re a low-income individual.
The Basic Personal Amount, a tax credit that is available to anyone who files taxes, is going to be increased by $3,000. It’s the first time the credit has changed since 2011.
That means if you earn less than $25,000 a year you can claim $11,481 as non-taxable income.
According to the province, the average Nova Scotian will save $159.22 on their taxes. The maximum someone can save is $263
Effective Jan 1, 2018 an additional 63,000 people will no longer pay provincial income tax. That brings the new total to 283,000 people.
The government says that the new plan will cost the government $85 million in revenue.
READ MORE: Nova Scotia Liberals post second surplus, under-spend on health and education
There will be 30 new pre-primary locations in the province with all of them offering early learning programs
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The proposed increase of $3.7 milllion to the early learning programs means that 30 new pre-primary locations will soon be coming to the province.
As a result, 38 centres in the province will be open to four year-olds enrolled in school. While the location of the 30 new centres hasn’t been determined, the province says it could save families as much as $10,000 a year.
There are currently 221 students in 8 centres around the province.
More kids in Nova Scotia are going to be eating school provided breakfasts
The government has proposed a $1.1 million increase to the province’s school breakfast program. Within the next four years every school in the province will have a breakfast available for their students every day.
As of the moment, 40 schools in the province didn’t offer a daily breakfast and 35 schools didn’t have the program at all.
As a result, the funding for the program would be set at $1.8 million.
More money for seniors enrolled in the province’s Seniors Pharamacare Program
The province is also proposing $7.9 million dollars to meet the needs of Nova Scotia seniors enrolled in its Seniors Pharmacare Program
It isn’t the change to the program that the government said it would be but it keeps the status quo. According to the government, by 2030 more than one in four Nova Scotians will be aged 65 or older.
The small business tax threshold has been increased from $350,000 to $500,000
The government has budgeted $13.9 million in order to increase the small business tax threshold from $350,000 to $500,000.
The government says this increase will allow for businesses in the province to grow and it’ll reduce taxes for 1,800 small and medium sized business.
Since small business have limited access to financing the increase will also allow businesses to have increased access to cash flow.
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