Whether the government’s budget proposals ensure Australian money stays in Australia remains to be seen.
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Of course, there are also the minor issues of setting up Australia’s economy for future prosperity and reducing a ballooning deficit. Here are five key things you should watch out for.
In its latest economic blueprint, the government plans to reduce Australia’s deficit to AU$37.1 billion next year and to AU$15.4 billion by 2018-19.
The government will seek to reduce access to generous tax concessions for wealthy individuals by introducing a transfer balance cap of $1.6 million on the total amount of superannuation that can be transferred pre-retirement.
Mr Morrison said one in eight children under the age of 15 were growing up in the family where no one had a job.
These are all relatively modest ideas.
From what’s been revealed most recently, it is unlikely there will be a change to the 10 per cent goods and services tax (GST)…
The OECD is attempting to close loopholes used by multinationals to exploit differences between countries’ tax laws and avoid paying tax on their income.
The government opposes Labor’s policy to end negative gearing and says it will cause house prices to crash.
As an election gambit, the budget makes small waves, but creates importantly few constituencies of complaint (unlike the 2014-15 Hockey budget).
A bunch of changes to superannuation rules – the best news is that low-income earners will benefit from a tax offset.
Mr Morrison appears to be sticking to his word that the budget will not be filled with sweeteners for voters.
‘The belief is there is still a lot of income tax revenue that can be recovered, ‘ Tax Institute President Arthur Athanasiou said. It will also provide an extra A$1.5bn for school funding.
“If you’re up there at Townsville, if you’re in Whyalla, if you’re down at Albany, if you’re in any of these places, you want to know that the government is going to do something to support jobs and growth in the economy”.
In the run-up to the election, Turnbull and Morrison have attempted to highlight their conservative coalition’s purported fiscal responsibility credentials, in contrast to Labor.
There will be A$5bn to pay for transport infrastructure, chiefly the Sydney Metro and Melbourne Metro rail projects.
Your morning commute is about to get a bit nicer, with $33 billion pledged to road and rail upgrades. It also plans to expand CSIRO’s accelerator programme.
It targets multinational firms with taxable revenues of $1 billion or more and companies caught cheating are asked to pay back double what they owe plus interest.
“This is the equivalent of cutting Medicare and flooding the emergency wards of Australian hospitals with more patients”, Shorten said.
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The budget, which was brought forward by a week to accommodate plans for a looming election, was expected to mark a major step away from the budget delivered two years ago by the former treasurer, Joe Hockey.
