Federal Budget: Tradies, small business to get new tax
deductions
TRADIES and other small
business operators will be given new tax deductions even
if they miss out on a 1.5 per cent cut for small
companies as part of a multibillion-dollar jobs package
in tonight’s Budget.
And old and young
jobseekers will benefit from increased subsidies to
employers who hire them, in moves designed to tackle
soaring unemployment in the two age groups.
But a suite of tax changes will hit consumers through
higher GST, with other costs likely to be passed on by
large IT and mining companies that will be chased for
taxes they have escaped paying.
Australians will
be forced to cough up an extra $350 million in GST over
the next four years on digital downloads from overseas
on sites including Netflix and Spotify.
Thirty multinational companies will be pursued for
billions of dollars in taxes, in a crackdown on firms
shifting profits off shore.
Treasurer Joe Hockey insisted there would be no new
taxes in his second Budget, describing the tax changes
as “integrity measures” designed to make the system
fairer.
Mr Hockey said the GST changes would bring the tax up to
date with the surge in digital downloads. “It is plainly
unfair that a supplier of digital products into
Australia is not charging the GST,’’ Mr Hockey said.