New Brunswick Budget−March 2020: Budget Summary

On March 10, 2020, Finance Minister Ernie Steeves tabled New Brunswick’s 2020-21 budget.

The budget projects a $92.4 million surplus in 2020-21 and sees the province’s net debt decrease futher.

The net debt is currently estimated at $13.9 billion, and is expected to decline by $129.3 million in 2020-21.

The estimates provided in Budget 2020 show that the province projects a surplus of $97.7 million for the 2019-20 fiscal year, an improvement of $74.6 over the $23.1 million surplus projected for the same fiscal year in the previous budget.

Tax measures

No changes to the corporate tax rates, or the $500,000 small business limit, are proposed.

Sales and excise taxes

Budget 2020 proposes no changes to the current 15% HST rate, which is composed of a federal component of 5% and a provincial component of 10%.

The gasoline tax will decrease by 4.63 cents/L from 15.5 cents/L to 10.87 cents/L.

The motive fuel (diesel) tax will also decrease by 6.05 cents/L from 21.5 cents/L to 15.45 cents/L.

Provincial property taxes

New Brunswick’s provincial property tax rates will begin decreasing over a four-year period from 2021 to 2024.

Consult our document below for more details.