COSBOA celebrates Budget

COSBOA praised the budget announcement yesterday, declaring it a win for small businesses of Australia.

CEO for COSBOA, Peter Strong, credited Scott Morrison, Treasurer, and Kelly O’Dwyer, Small Business Minister and Assistant Treasurer saying, "The economy is in now a better position to deal with and  take advantage of change."

Explaining further what the budget means to small business, Mr Strong continued:

"The big ticket item is that the threshold for determining what is considered a small business has been raised to $10 million annual turnover.  This creates a change immediately for government support actions around tax breaks, instant tax write offs and other initiatives.” 

This higher threshold will give more businesses access to the $20,000 instant tax write off announced in last year’s budget.  There is also another tax decrease for these businesses, which means tax has decreased 2.5% in two years.

Mr Strong said, "This is a good message to send to businesses, who want to grow and employ, or start to export and take advantage of the global economy.

"The budget changes and the decisions that were made last year put these businesses in an ideal pool to work with smaller micro businesses to innovate and add value; produce and manufacture goods for domestic and global markets.

“The simplification of the BAS shows a commitment from the government and the ATO to making compliance easier and reflects the fact that the great majority of businesses are honest and transparent in their dealings with government and need less monitoring and better flexibility.” said Mr Strong.

Funding for the Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman (SBFEO), Kate Carnell, has increased from $2m to $6m. 

Mr Strong said, "This is important because Ms Carnell needs to develop the role and gather the information and resources required to aggressively advocate where needed and when needed.”

The last six months also saw significant changes to the Competition Act: the Effects Test.

Peter added, "When implemented, the Effects Test will create more space for innovators to be rewarded for their efforts.

“The creation of fairness in contracts between small business and bigger businesses will provide the fairness necessary for individual stress management and for proper and honest negotiations and contract contents,” said Mr Strong.

The creation of the SBFEO provides the infrastructure and the advocate within the bureaucracy to inform the business community and represent them as necessary. The changes in competition and in contracts cost nothing and the SBFEO is $6m a year.

However, a key issue that has not been addressed in the budget, and COSBOA is hoping it will become a centrepiece of election industry policy, is the reform of the Vocational Education and Training sector. 

Mr Strong said, “To take the greatest advantage of this small business budget and the confidence it will create, we need workers with the right skills, not the skills that make easy money for some greedy RTOs.  For example, those who are unemployed, or workers seeking new careers or to increase their earning potential are the ones who require these skills the most.

“The Youth Pathways outlined in the budget go some way to helping focus on our needs and the needs of the unemployed person, but more needs to be done in VET. We know that it could not be solved in this budget as the problems in that sector are profound and cannot be fixed overnight,” concluded Mr Strong.

For more information on COSBOA, visit www.cosboa.org.au.