Federal election 2019: tax cuts set to be delivered on time

Scott Morrison’s promised tax cuts will be delivered by the 2019-20 financial year, despite Greens threats to block them.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s planned tax cuts are closer to getting the green light. Picture: David Caird

Scott Morrison says his promised tax cuts will still be delivered by the 2019-20 financial year even if parliament does not sit before June with the Australian Tax Office stating it can pass on changes retrospectively.

There was speculation in other media outlets this morning that the tax cuts would not be passed on as the Prime Minister said parliament was unlikely to sit before June 30.

“Tax relief will be delivered in 2019-20 as promised,” a spokeswoman for the Prime Minister said. “And will not be delayed by a year by the parliament not sitting in June as speculated in the media today.”

An Australian Tax Office spokesman this morning said the tax cuts could be administered retrospectively if necessary law changes are passed after June.

And if Labor agrees to the changes before parliament returns, then the ATO could reflect the cuts in people’s tax home pay immediately.

“Following media commentary we would like to clarify that in respect of announced tax cuts, while we do need law change there are also things we can do administratively,” he said.

“For example, if the Labor Party agrees to support the Coalition tax cuts as announced, then we would be able to update the tax withholding schedules, to allow the tax cuts to be reflected in people’s take home pay. However, we could not issue assessments based on the tax cuts until these are passed into law.

“If the law for these tax cuts passes after June, we could also retrospectively amend assessments to provide the tax cut once the law is passed.”

Mr Morrison and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg will meet to discuss the economy and tax cuts as RBS governor Philip Lowe prepares to make a major speech today on the outlook for Australia.

Mr Morrison and Mr Frydenberg will catch up in Sydney today for the first time since the Coalition’s election win on Saturday.

Three federal seats are on a knife edge as vote counting continues and this could push back the start of parliament if the results go down to the wire. At the same time, key crossbench senators are still to pledge their support for the tax plan.

The Australian Greens held onto all of their six Senate seats in the election and party leader Richard Di Natale says the minor party won’t support the income tax cuts.

“We had millions of Australians voting for parties like the Greens in the Senate to hold this government to account, and we’ll do that,” he told ABC radio’s RN program.

“We’re not going to support tax cuts to people on half a million dollars ... if any support is going to be given it needs to be targeted at people on low incomes.”

Mr Frydenberg is expected to head to Canberra today to meet Treasury officials about the Coalition’s budget agenda.

Additional reporting: AAP