The hard working women and men of Australian small business are the engine room of our economy. Their innovative and entrepreneurial spirit will drive Australia’s economic future.
There are already good signs the Commonwealth Government is getting the settings right for over two million small businesses across Australia. In 2014 new company registrations were the highest on record and jobs growth was more than three times what it was under Labor in 2013, with nearly 4000 jobs created every week.
The Government’s Jobs and Small Business package, to be announced in the 2015 Budget, will build on what has already been achieved, helping small business to invest more, grow more and employ more.
Small business has been telling us that red tape and regulation is killing them. Today we are announcing measures that make it easier for small business to do business.
From July 2016, new start-ups will be able to immediately deduct professional costs associated with starting a business rather than writing them off over five years.
Many people need the advice of lawyers and accountants when they start a business. This can be expensive and drag on cash flow. Allowing these costs to be deducted immediately will allow more money to be invested in growing the new business.
Business registration will be streamlined with a single online registration site. This will fix the current fragmented and complex process, saving time and money.
Small business owners will also be able to change the legal structure of their business without incurring a CGT liability. This will reduce some of the complexity of starting a new business and provide business owners with more flexibility to determine how they grow.
The Government is making it easier for small businesses to access the capital they need to grow and thrive by removing obstacles to crowd-sourced equity funding. This change compliments the expanded tax concessions for Employee Share Schemes currently before Parliament.
The Government will also consult in the coming months on the current framework that guides the establishment and regulation of corporations. The consultation will investigate whether some of the regulatory requirements can be removed or relaxed to reduce compliance costs and make it easier for small businesses to innovate, grow and create jobs.
Together with other measures to be announced in the Jobs and Small Business package, these common sense reforms will help ensure Australia is the best place to start and grow a small business.