Leon Byner:
The Government has announced that they’re going to provide $105 million in targeted tax relief to attract and retain workers. But really what does that mean? Well, I caught up with the Assistant Treasurer, to find out exactly what that meant.
Michael Sukkar, thanks for joining us today. We have this ridiculous rule where we tax businesses that train their staff. This obviously came out of some socialist fool who thought that all businesses do is avoid paying tax rather than actually growing their business and employing people. So, we’re now going to educate them and not tax business for it?
Minister Sukkar:
Well, Leon, I don’t think that I could say it better myself. Yes, today we’ve announced that we’re abolishing Fringe Benefits Tax for employers who invest in the re-training or re-skilling of their employees. We think that it’s going to be more important than ever that we encourage businesses to invest in re-training and re-skilling their employees and this is one practical way that we remove a disincentive for doing that. We’re also announcing today, Leon, that we’re expanding access to a range of small business tax concessions. These concessions – ten of them in total – have been available to businesses with a turnover of up to $10 million, we’re now extending that…interrupted.
Leon Byner:
What sort of concessions are we talking about?
Minister Sukkar:
So these are concessions that include deferring certain obligations certain obligations to report to the ATO, some immediate deductions that are available for small businesses which will now be available to businesses with a turnover of up to $50 million, some exemptions, some additional exemptions form Fringe Benefits Tax for things like car parking benefits and for portable devices – laptops, iPads, phones and the like. Previously, those exemptions were only available for businesses up to $10 million, they’re now going to be available for businesses up to $50 million which brings in an additional 20,000 businesses covering some 1.7 million employees. So again, it’s a way that we are ensuring that the tax system supports the employers who are employing over 1.7 million Australians.
Leon Byner:
Michael, given that the heaviest hit industry by a country-mile has been hospitality, has there been any consideration given to bringing back the deductibility of companies or businesses that take their employees or clients to lunch?
Minister Sukkar:
Yeah, Leon, there has been a really strong campaign from the hospitality sector and many in the media including yourself, to bring back the long lunch, so to speak. We of course look at all of those proposals very closely. I suppose that all I can say to you today, Leon, is that your listeners should watch the budget speech. We are very cognisant of the fact that one or if not, the hardest hit sector has been hospitality and ways that we can encourage Australians to go out and support hospitality workers and businesses is obviously a very worthy objective.
Leon Byner:
So, if you’re running a business and you want to know what kind of options there are for you in terms of writing something off or deducting it as a cost, what do you do? Can you go to a particular site and find out because often these things are not easily obtained because it gets very complex?
Minister Sukkar:
Yeah, I mean for most small businesses they will, to some extent, rely on their accountants or bookkeepers. In relation to these announcements today, treasury.gov.au has all the detail of the additional exemptions, the additional deductions, the eased obligations that businesses will have now with a turnover of up to $50 million with dealing with the ATO. So treasury.gov.au has all that detail and I can assure you, Leon, that there will be a lot more in the budget to support small businesses, medium sized businesses and indeed all businesses to employ their fellow Australians. That’s what this budget is about, and today’s announcements are a small part of that.
Leon Byner:
That’s the Assistant Treasurer, Michael Sukkar.