The right Budget for small business, jobs and families: Taylor

Tuesday, 12 May 2015

“Tax relief for small business and farmers and opportunities for more families to work, are what Australians want. This is the right Budget,” said Federal Member for Hume Angus Taylor.

Mr Taylor said the 2015 Budget would deliver the lowest company tax rate for public and private companies since 1967.

"We're looking for small business to invest and create more jobs. We know that most small businesses - and there are 14,000 in Hume alone - are in a position where, given the encouragement, they can make investments fairly quickly. Many have shovel ready projects that are going to create more jobs in regional areas."

Mr Taylor welcomed the significant Budget support for small business including:

 - from 1 July 2015, a cut in the company tax rate for up to 780,000 incorporated businesses with annual turnover up to $2 million by 1.5 percentage points to 28.5 per cent;

- from 1 July 2015, a 5 per cent tax discount for over one and a half million sole traders, trusts and partnership structures which are unincorporated businesses with annual turnover up to $2 million, capped at $1,000, through their end of year tax return; and

- from Budget night until 30 June 2017, the ability for small businesses with turnover below $2 million to fully and immediately deduct every asset they acquire that is valued up to $20,000 for tax purposes - a substantial increase from the previous $1,000 threshold.

Mr Taylor said a Budget commitment of $70 million would allow primary producers to claim more favourable accelerated depreciation for water facilities, fodder assets and fencing, allowing farmers to more effectively store and use water and fodder to better manage periods of drought and fully deduct the cost of fencing in the year it is purchased.

Welcoming the Jobs for Families package, Mr Taylor said it would encourage as many as 240,000 families to increase their involvement in paid employment, by making childcare simpler, more affordable and more flexible.

"More and more in regional areas we're now seeing that both parents work. That wasn't true 20 to 30 years ago, but it's certainly true today, even if one of them is just working part time. My wife has worked for most of her career and it's a struggle. We have to provide the right encouragement and that's what this package will look to do."

Mr Taylor said encouraging more people into work would strengthen economic growth, create more revenue and help repair the Budget.

He said the Budget was a balanced package, with additional investment fully offset by additional savings.

“The one thing I know we need to contain is growth in government expenditure. We saw during the Labor era expenditure rising far, far faster than income and GDP.  I have no problem acknowledging that it’s going to take time to contain the spending and you don’t always get it absolutely right the first time, but that overall mission, which we know we’re now half way towards, is unbelievably important and we need to keep at it and we will keep at it, during this Budget and beyond.”