Bill Shorten says Labor will roll back business tax cuts
LABOR will raise taxes on thousands of small and medium-sized Australian businesses if elected at the next election, and is considering repealing the Turnbull government’s company tax cuts for firms with annual revenues of as small as $2 million.
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LABOR will raise taxes on thousands of small and medium-sized Australian businesses if elected at the next election, and is considering repealing the Turnbull government’s company tax cuts for firms with annual revenues of as small as $2 million.
Labor leader Bill Shorten this morning said the party had decided to repeal tax cuts passed last year for businesses turning over between $10 million and $50 million – about 14,000 – and was still considering whether to extend that to smaller companies.
The shock announcement comes as the government is still trying to extend those tax cuts, negotiated last March, to big businesses.
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The government’s tax cut plans slashes the corporate tax rate from 30 per cent to 25 per cent.
At a speech this morning Mr Shorten confirmed Labor would repeal tax cuts for businesses turning over between $10 million and $50 million, and was “considering between $2 million and $10 million turnovers beyond that”.
“You have to look at priorities. I just don’t agree with Mr Turnbull that the four big banks deserve $17 billion in tax cut over the next 10 years,” he said.
“I would rather see that being put back into our schools.
“I don’t agree with Mr Turnbull that the multinationals should get a tax cut yet we are carrying out cuts to our hospital and healthcare systems.”
The government needs the support of One Nation and Centre Alliance, which looked unlikely yesterday despite heavy pressure, to pass the entire company tax cut plan.
Treasurer Scott Morrison took immediate aim at Labor’s announcement, and said Mr Shorten had “confirmed yet another giant, job destroying tax” on businesses and the economy.
Labor has no plans to grow the economy, just plans to suffocate it with higher taxes, destroying jobs and stealing pay rises #auspol
— Scott Morrison (@ScottMorrisonMP) June 26, 2018
“Not only has Labor committed to ripping our personal income tax cut away from 9 million Aussies, they’ll now hit tens of thousands of businesses that employ 1.5 million Aussies with high taxes,” he wrote on Twitter.
If Labor was to repeal business tax cuts for companies turning over $2 million or more annually, it would affect around 94,000 businesses employing 3.3 million workers.