Australians race to lodge tax returns after cuts promised

Aussies race to get their tax returns in, with 650,000 people already lodging claims.

Michael Sukkar, says record numbers have lodged their tax returns. Picture: Richard Jupe.

Australians are racing to get their tax returns in, with 650,000 people already lodging their claims with the Australian Taxation Office.

Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar said today millions were eager to receive their tax cuts with the number of returns already submitted to the ATO exceeding previous years.

“There are millions and millions of Australians who I know this week are eagerly awaiting their tax cuts,” he told reporters in the southeastern Melbourne suburb Croydon South.

“The 650,000 returns that have been lodged thus far is quite a bit above what it’s been in previous years,” he said.

“Which we’ve anticipated and the ATO is prepared for … we’re very keen to roll out these tax cuts as quickly as possible”.

The Coalition’s $158 billion tax cut package passed parliament last week after the government secured crucial crossbench support last week, which means lower and middle income earners will receive $1080 in immediate tax relief this end of financial year.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg today also dismissed former union leader Bill Kelty’s call to further slash top tax rates.

“It’s interesting that Bill Kelty is saying this after the election because we didn’t hear that from Labor or senior people like Bill Kelty before the election,” he said.

“What we heard from the Labor Party, what they took to the Australian people, was an increase in the highest threshold on tax, an increase in the highest rate.”

“We have a tax plan, we took it to the Australian people and now we are faithfully implementing it.”

Kelty’s tax cut call ‘sends strong message to ALP’

The Morrison government has seized on former trade union leader Bill Kelty’s push for a lower top marginal tax rate, saying Anthony Albanese’s reluctance to lower taxes for high income earners is against “old Labor values.”

While the Opposition ultimately voted for Scott Morrison’s full tax package last week, it has left the door open to repealing the third stage of tax relief for high income earners if it wins the next election.

Mr Kelty — secretary of the ACTU in the Hawke-Keating years and a leading figure in the economic reform period of the 1980s — today renewed calls he made in The Australian a fortnight ago to dramatically slash personal income tax rates, while rolling back concessions like negative gearing.

The government’s income tax package passed last week will provide immediate tax relief to low and middle income earners but reform of the top marginal tax rate does not occur until 2024 when the threshold at which the top marginal tax rate of 45 per cent (47 per cent if the Medicare levy is included) begins will be lifted from $180,000 to $200,000.

Labor has signalled it may still roll back that element of the tax plan if it wins the next election.

Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar said Mr Kelty was sending a “very strong message” to his Labor colleagues about the party’s current attitude to tax reform.

“The Labor Party of 2019 under Anthony Albanese — which looks really like a continuation of the leadership of Bill Shorten — which is this phony class warfare position that they adopt on everything,” Mr Sukkar told Sky News.

“And I think he’s sending a very strong message that them putting all the obstacles in the way of our tax cuts last week were not what he would consider old Labor values in the Bob Hawke tradition.

But when asked if the government would consider a further slashing of the top tax rates, Mr Sukkar said the Prime Minister’s current tax relief plan was enough.

“In our view, the plan that we legislated last week ensures that there is integrity in our tax system … but ensuring that there is not a hand brake on aspiration.,” Mr Sukkar said.

Mr Kelty’s renewed push for lower tax rates in The Australian Financial Review today come as Labor prepares for a formal review of its election loss led by former trade minister Craig Emerson and ex-South Australian premier Jay Weatherill.

Opposition social services spokeswoman Linda Burney said the tax rates would be part of the review, but said Mr Kelty and other Labor figures pushing reform should be listed to but were not “the font of all wisdom.”

“My view is that everything should be looked at and looked at with enormous honesty by the Labor Party and that is what will go forward,” she told Sky News.

“They are not the font of all wisdom but they are definitely people who should be listened to.

“I’m sure it’s part of what will be examined. We’ve just gone through the issue around tax cuts.”