Michael Sukkar:
This week, we have seen Australians responding to the tax cuts delivered by the Morrison Government in spades. As of yesterday, we've had 1.3 million tax returns lodged. That's some 600,000 more tax returns that were lodged at the corresponding time last year and we're seeing tax refunds, on average, of $2,350, up from $1,950 last year and that's in relation to the half a million tax returns that have already been processed by the ATO.
So there's been an unprecedented response from Australians to the tax cuts delivered by the Morrison Government. 500,000 have already been processed. More will be processed commencing on Monday, 1.3 million returns lodged, which is up from 700,000 from this time last year, so an increase of 600,000. The Morrison Government has said that the cornerstone to our economic plan is to deliver tax cuts and we were able to deliver tax cuts in the first week back in parliament and the Australian people are responding in the way that you would expect, with a record number of tax returns lodged. Next week, we are very excited to see even more returns being processed. Of the 500,000 tax returns that have been processed to date, there's have been refunds of $1.2 billion. So we will see that continue next week and the Australian Taxation Office is working very hard, all hands on deck, to make sure that the unprecedented demand from Australian in lodging their tax returns can be met.
Journalist:
So it won't cripple the system again like it did yesterday?
Michael Sukkar:
Well of course we saw an unprecedented response from Australians not just in lodging their tax returns but also in telephone calls to the ATO. As I said, we've seen, 1.3 million people lodge a tax return, 600,000 more than the corresponding time last year. Yesterday, there were some outages but that didn't effect processing, so all of the returns that were lodged are being processed in an orderly way.
Journalist:
Given record debt that Australians are facing at the moment. There's every indication that any tax refunds people will get are paying off debts rather than discretionary spending. Are we actually expecting the refunds to have any big impact on the bottom line of the economy?
Michael Sukkar:
Well as I said, the average refund has been $2,350 up from $1,950 this time last year. We would not presume to tell the Australian people how they should spend their tax refunds. We'd expect that every single individual, every single family, every couple, will make a decision that's in their best interests. But our expectation is that a large part of the tax refunds will be spent in the economy and we know that that does great things for confidence and will do wonderful things for many industries including retail. The Treasurer and I were at a retail outlet just this week and they're excited about that prospect too.
Journalist:
Earlier today, the Prime Minister said an indigenous voice, presumably what Minister Wyatt has referred to in his speech, that's an indigenous advisory body, would not be considered as part of a constitutional change. What is the Coalition seeking to achieve at a referendum result about an indigenous advisory body?
Michael Sukkar:
Well look, I'll leave that to the Prime Minister and to Minister Ken Wyatt. As I said, today, as a Treasury team, we're very keen to let the Australian people know just what's been happening with the Australian Taxation Office. Again, as I said, the 1.3 million tax returns lodged. 500,000 tax returns processed and 1.2 billion of refunds delivered so I'll leave those issues to the Prime Minister and Minister Wyatt.
Journalist:
Why pursue a referendum if there isn't any intention…
Michael Sukkar:
Look again, I'll leave that to the Prime Minister and the Minister responsible, as Assistant Treasurer, I'm really just wanting to focus on tax payers.
Journalist:
The Prime Minister said at the LNP conference today that no decision will be made on deeming rates. Could you elaborate…
Michael Sukkar:
No, I won't elaborate. Obviously, the Prime Minister, the Minister for Finance, the Treasurer, myself, Minister Ruston, have all made it clear that this was an issue that we're looking at….inaudible
Inaudible
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Michael Sukkar:
We've picked about the worst possible day to do a presser here and it could rain on us at any moment so I'll make that commitment.
Journalist:
Inaudible question
Michael Sukkar:
Well, as I said, there's been unprecedented demand on the system. I know that the ATO was expecting a significant increase given the interest of Australian taxpayers in getting their hand on their tax cuts as soon as possible. Notwithstanding those extra measures that have been put in place, obviously that wasn't enough. But all those issues have now been rectified and I'm hopeful on speaking to the commissioner of taxation this morning that hopefully those issues have been ironed out, so to speak and that we'll continue to see high demand on tax return lodgements, building on the 1.3 million that have already been lodged and hopefully, there are no intermittent disruptions as we saw yesterday. But can I just reiterate that yesterday, we saw nearly a thousand tax return lodged and we had half a million refunds processed yesterday. So even though there was some disruption with MyGov, the processing of tax returns continued, unabated.