Working a retail job is hard. You work long hours, often while the rest of the world is on their leisure time. Weekends are non-existent, holidays are spent serving and folding clothes and you often work for lower end wages. One of the perks to working for a retail chain or store is the fact that you often get generous staff discounts. While some see it as a great benefit, others see it as just another way to keep money within the company.
Staff and employee discounts could be under attack as the latest version of the Canada Revenue Agency’s Tax Folio advises employers that “when an employee receives a discount on merchandise because of their employment, the value of the discount is generally included in the employee’s income,” with the value of the discount assessed at “equal to the fair market value of the merchandise purchased, less the amount paid by the employee,” unless the discount is “available to the public or a segment of the public, at some point during the year.” The change will essentially mean that the government plans to tax things like a small discount off for a shoe salesperson, to a tax on a meal discount for waitresses to a tax on a free gym membership for trainers.
CTV News is reporting that some Conservative MP’s and business lobby groups are accusing the Liberal government of targeting low-wage retail employees with new rules for employee discounts. The new change to the policy is expected to take place as of Jan 1st, 2018. Critics of the new policy state that this new policy targets people who are on the lowest rung of the economy. In addition to that, it means that local business owners will have the headache of tracking all employees discounts and taxing them appropriately.
Source: CTV News