Canada's corporate tax rates are currently at their lowest rate in years, dropping to 16.5 percent at the start of this year and potentially falling to 15 percent beginning January 1, 2012.
Yet, many Canadian small businesses are opting not to establish a Registered Retirement Savings Plan, to which many are under-contributing or neglecting altogether, according to Mark Shoniker, a managing director at BMO Financial Group.
"They see their company as the way to fund retirement," Shoniker told the Vancouver Sun.
One of the main problems surrounding small businesses and retirement plans is the lack of understanding how the recession has affected their operations, as well as that of the industry in which they work. A recent BMO survey reported that 13 percent of business owners with fewer than 50 employees do not know how the recession has impacted the value of their company.
"The U.S. small business community was much harder hit than here in Canada, and you are now finding people realizing they can't sell their businesses because they have declined in value, so they must continue working well beyond the age they had planned to retire," Shoniker added.
