The Alberta NDP is promising the elimination of the small business tax on most small businesses if elected on May 29.

The proposal would see the province’s two per cent tax on small businesses eliminated, for businesses that generate up to $500,000 in income each year.

The goal, said Rachel Notley, the Alberta NDP leader, would be spur the creation of new businesses and to help support existing ones.

“We’re really far behind Ontario, Quebec and B.C. in terms of the number of small businesses we have in Alberta,” she said.

“We need to do something to support those small business owners.”

In a press release sent out to the media on Monday, the Alberta NDP said this promise would cost the province $150 million annual in revenue.

Notley described that reduction as something that would occur in the short term but would mean longer-term revenue gains through increased investment and increased employment in the province.

“By eliminating this tax we can help thousands of local businesses get back on their feet, and we can support aspiring entrepreneurs to pursue their dreams,” she said.

The party said the reduction in the tax would save businesses up to $10,000 per year (two per cent of the $500,000 small business cap), and would help more than 100,000 small businesses across the province.

Notley said that professional firms, like those for lawyers and accountants, would still be charged the two per cent small business tax rate.

“The reason that we’re doing this is because we’re really trying to focus on that mom-and-pop operation that is trying to make a go,” she said.

“It’s not that lawyers and accountants don’t contribute to their community, but oftentimes what you’re seeing is those are very high-income earners that mostly that that revenue is coming mostly to themselves, and so you end up with an unintended consequence of giving a tax break to folks who are doing super well.”

The tax cut would match one made for small businesses by the Manitoba NDP.