The other tax-related measures announced in the Budget were focused overwhelmingly on tax avoidance and evasion. Apple paid about 1% of its Australian income in tax during the same period, while Microsoft paid about 5%.
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This tax is aimed at cracking down on multinational corporations that are paying little to no tax by shifting their profits to countries with lower tax rates.
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. The offset is also created to increase flexibility for low income earners allowing more self employed people to claim tax deductions for personal super contributions, encouraging partners to make contributions to their low-income spouses super accounts, removing restrictions that prevent people aged between 65 and 75 from making contributions to their superannuation and allowing people with interrupted work (predominantly women and carers) to rollover unused concessional caps to make extra contributions.
In reference to blockchain technology, the government said Data61 will review opportunities for the technology to be adopted in government and the private sector, including testing.
THE federal government is on course to delay the backpacker tax increase by six months to allow more time for stakeholder consultation to resolve the complex policy issue.
In a nutshell, this budget puts high income earners and big business before everyday Australians.
“China is doing fine now, partly because debt has jumped again”, Richardson said.
‘The new rules suggest Australian taxpayers have had enough of companies trying to avoid paying their fair share of taxes’.
Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen unsuccessfully attempted to have parliament debate a motion condemning the prime minister for what amounted to a “fraud”.
Deloitte tax partner Patrick McCalman said one upshot of the budget was that the Australian tax system was looking “more unappealing for multinationals looking for a home in the Asia-Pacific region”.
The sector is bitterly disappointed the Turnbull government has upheld the hefty income tax for people on working holidays. But recreational and commercial fishers, tourism operators and conservationists are fiercely debating how to use the country’s most sensitive marine areas.
The Government’s decision to leave negative gearing unchanged in the budget was the appropriate one, according to property investment company Aviate Group’s Managing Director Neil Smoli, who reinforced the importance of making negative gearing accessible to investors in new developments.
MR TURNBULL and the Liberals had important choices to make with this budget, but once again they have chosen the top end of town over families.
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Just hours before the Budget was delivered, Australia’s central bank revealed it was cutting interest rates to a record low of 1.75 per cent, partly because of unusually low inflation and global uncertainty. While today less than 2 per cent of people (around 255,000) with superannuation make contributions above $25,000, a significant number of such individuals that have low balances are attempting to catch up. We are achieving this by policies that continue to control spending.
