Is it just me or have we experienced an illusion over the last year. The Henry tax review was announced with much fanfare. For the last few months we have waited for the big reveal. Journalists were locked up most of yesterday to prepare the toe big tax story of the decade and then, well, all we needed was a pretty lady in sequins and we’d have had a great illusion.
Maybe I am missing something but I don’t see any major tax reform in the package. Sure there may be a reduction in company tax and the possibility of faster depreciation for some purchases. No taxes have been eliminated. No red tape appears to have been eliminated. It all seems like an opportunity lost to me.
Mark…you missed out the fact that Swan touted this as a ‘Historic’ tax review !! One of Rudd’s election spins was that there would be no increase to super…..ugh !!
Baz, you’re right. What an opportunity missed to make important structural change.
Socialists, all noise and no delivery. The thought of another 5 years of Gordon Brown, and you would not want his style of tax reform in Australian, gives is the stuff of nightmares for small businesss in the UK.
Steve
Does anyone think it strange that neither side of politics has the guts to review the $450 per month threshhold on qualification for superannuation benefits?
This $450 threshhold has remained the same ever since the introduction of this imposed burden on businesses. It has never been reviewed. It has never been indexed. It has never changed.
This, despite the fact that wages have increased, Tax tables have changed and Billions of dollars ($4.5Bil at last count) of super contributions lay “unclaimed” and idle.
As a sustantial employer of casual staff, some of whom have returned to their native land and “left their super behind”, I would like someone to give me my money back!
Of course, I’m dreaming. No polititian would dare upset the workers by suggesting they should earn more money before being entitled to “free” superannuation.
The Henry Report does not deal with this because the issue is too “hot” for gutless public servants and polititions alike.
And did you know that you are not required to do an annual stocktake if you think your stock value has not varied by more than $5,000 either way?
Never been reviewed. Never been indexed. Never been changed. Since the GST was introduced.
And to think we actually pay these wankers with our hard earned tax dollars.
Hey Henry….”There’s a hole in the bucket!”