Government announces back dating of tax support provisions removal

THE Council of Small Business Australia (COSBOA) has expressed extreme disappointment with the Federal Government’s decision to back date the removal of tax support provisions for small business as a result of the mining tax repeal, which was announced earlier today.

Peter Strong, Chief Executive of COSBOA said that the change should not be back dated as this creates confusion and extra paperwork for the small business community as well as those who, in good faith, purchased goods and/or claimed these as part of their tax return.

“We can only express disbelief that the back dating was kept in place.  This shows a complete lack of understanding about the way small businesses operate. The logical decision would have been to keep these provisions in place, pending the outcomes of the Tax Whitepaper that the Government has commissioned,” Mr Strong said.

“Another issue is that the changes take effect half-way through the last financial year. No government should implement changes to the tax system half way through a financial year.  To think that 2.1 million small business people wake up every day and go to the Treasury website to check what changes to the tax system may have occurred is totally unrealistic.”

This announcement will only impact small businesses and not big business, Mr Strong also noted.

 

http://www.cosboa.org.au/

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