Small business in tail spin without big Budget reforms: COSBOA
Labor must better support small- to medium-sized enterprises in its next budget if many are to survive the cost of living crisis, says the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia.
Labor must better support small- to medium-sized enterprises in its next budget if many are to survive the cost-of-living crisis, says the peak body for small business.
The Council of Small Business Organisations is calling on the government to extend energy rebates for small businesses, increase the instant asset write-off threshold and provide tax offsets for sole traders.
Payroll tax, stamp duty and the luxury car tax should also be overhauled, COSBOA said in its budget submission, in order to stimulate small business growth.
“Payroll tax is an invidious tax on employment that hurts productivity, wages and jobs,” the submission says.
The call for payroll tax to be reformed was backed last month by the powerful Electrical Trade Union, which argued Labor’s tax agenda needed to be more “pro-employment”.
While Labor announced in last year’s budget that it would increase the instant asset write-off threshold to $20,000 until June 30 this year, COSBOA and many of its members have urged for the threshold to be raised to $150,000.
The chair of the Commercial and Asset Finance Brokers Association of Australia – a member of COSBOA – David Gandolfo, said a permanent write-off was necessary so that small businesses were incentivised to invest in machinery and equipment that would increase their business and employ more people.
“Reducing tax rates is good and that helps people reducing interest rates helps people but changing tax benefits, drives behaviour. And it’s instant. It’s immediate,” he said.
COSBOA’s budget submission also called on the introduction of a 2.5 per cent tax offset for sole traders and for the small business energy incentive – which offers businesses with a turnover of $50m or less deductions for electrifying their equipment and investing in energy-saving measures – to be extended for another year past its planned expiry on June 30.
Australia’s oil and gas industry has also called on the government to use the budget to unlock new gas supply to avoid forecast shortages, put downward pressure on prices and secure the economic and emissions-reduction benefits of abundant natural gas resources.
The Australian Energy Producers submission called for the removal of price controls and a return to market signals for the east coast, an investment in carbon capture and storage and commitment to not introducing any further changes to the Petroleum Rent Resource Tax.