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Australian Opposition Pledges Company Tax Cut,
by Mary Swire, Tax-News.com, Hong Kong
Friday, July 30, 2010
The coalition opposition, led by the Liberal party’s Tony Abbott, has
made an electoral commitment to reduce company tax in Australia from the current
30% to 28.5%, in competition with the Labor government’s existing commitment
to reduce it to 29%.
The opposition is promising to make the company tax cut effective from July
1, 2013. It says that it will “make Australia’s tax regime more
competitive on the international stage and make Australia a more attractive
place to do business, helping to boost investment and jobs”.
It estimates that this measure will cost AUD2.55bn (USD2.3bn) over the two-year
forward estimates. Funds will be provided from the nearly AUD24bn in recurrent
savings that the coalition says that it has identified over those forward estimates.
It calls the measure a “modest, targeted and economically responsible
tax relief”, and professes that it is “a further demonstration of
the Coalition’s commitment to deliver lower taxes for Australians”.
However, the government, in a comment on the opposition’s proposal, has
called it a "card trick", especially as the opposition has previously
proposed to impose a 1.7% levy on taxable profits over AUD5m made by Australia’s
larger companies, to fund a policy to increase paid parental leave. A minister
called the proposal a simultaneous tax rise and a tax cut for the same companies.
The government had originally intended, when it introduced its proposed extension
to the resources super profits tax (RSPT), to reduce company tax further to
28% in 2014-15. That further cut was abandoned when it re-negotiated the RSPT
into the now-proposed minerals resource rent tax, reducing future funds available
for tax reforms.
The government did, however, retain its earlier cut in the company tax rate
to 29% from July 1, 2012, for small businesses. In reply, the opposition has
now also felt it necessary to stress its own support for small firms.
The coalition has said that it will reward calculated risk-taking to grow small
businesses by working with regulatory authorities to ensure that the commitment
of personal guarantees and private asset mortgages is rewarded by more affordable
and improved access to small business finance.
The coalition will also extend Unfair Contract protections for small businesses,
by extending the protections currently available to consumers to cover the small
business sector, and will require government departments and state agencies
to use tender procedures and procurement practices that do not disadvantage
small business participation.
It will also ensure that departments and state agencies pay small business
bills on time by adopting a ‘pay on time or pay interest’ basis.
It will apply to any small business that provides a service to the government.
If an account is not paid within the 30 days, interest will be applied at the
same rate as the ‘general interest charge’ applied by the Australian
Taxation Office to late tax payments.
The coalition will also give small businesses a say in taxation. Under a coalition
government, the Board of Taxation will always include a representative from
the small business sector, while it would ensure genuine consultation with the
small business sector about changes in government-imposed fees and charges,
to ensure that any change is implemented in a proportionate and equitable way.
In addition to the coalition’s AUD2.55bn commitment to reduce company
tax, it will commit an addition AUD13.5m over the forward estimates to fund
all of its measures to support small businesses.
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