“The Albanese government has refused to rule out their new small business tax on trusts could hit 60 per cent, sending even more small businesses to the wall and unemployment skyrocketing”, said Shadow Treasurer, Tim Wilson.
Mr Wilson’s comments come in the wake of Assistant Treasurer Daniel Mulino’s disastrous interview on the ABC’s Insiders, where he refused to rule out up to 60 per cent taxes on small businesses, particularly in the construction sector.
The interview also included the government admitting it knew in July that the ATO’s preference was to stop accepting credit card payments.
That contradicts the Treasurer, who said this week he only became aware of the ATO’s decision in late September.
“The government needs to stop torturing small businesses through higher taxes, charges and inflation, all because the Albanese government can’t control its spending addiction”, Mr Wilson said.
“That construction companies might be hit with a 60 per cent tax means new housing will stop overnight. To feed its spending addiction, the government is sinking small businesses with higher taxes”.
“We already have record small business insolvencies and closures, and the answer from the Albanese government is ‘let small business eat taxes’”.
Meanwhile, the government has finally admitted they were intimately involved in the surcharge ban.
“Jim Chalmers says he found out in late September. Dan Mulino says the government knew in July. Either the Assistant Treasurer kept the Treasurer in the dark, or the Treasurer kept Australians in the dark”, Mr Wilson said.
“Neither answer is good enough for the tradie, the travel agent or the local café, who were given just eight hours’ notice on 1 October”.
“The government had three months to fix this. Instead, they backed a two-month transition squeezed into the busiest period of the tax year and only stepped in when the backlash got too loud to ignore”.
“Dan Mulino told Insiders it was ‘the ATO’s call as an independent agency’, then admitted the government ‘worked with them to make sure that they were able to fund’ the transition. You can’t claim it’s somebody else’s decision while you’re the one paying for it”.
“The Assistant Treasurer let the cat out of the bag when he said continuing to accept credit cards ‘would have very serious fiscal ramifications for the budget’. That’s the real story. The Albanese government decided the cost was too much for Canberra to carry, so it handed the bill to small business instead”.
“With a cabinet reshuffle on the horizon, this morning was meant to be Dan Mulino’s audition to be Treasurer. Instead, he proved he’s the perfect understudy: he knew about the problem, sat on it, blamed someone else and refused to apologise. That’s not a fresh start, it’s a Jim Chalmers tribute act”.
“Asked again and again whether he had any regrets, the Assistant Treasurer couldn’t bring himself to say sorry to small business. Asked whether some small businesses will pay more than 60 per cent tax under Labor’s trusts tax, he couldn’t rule it out”.
“It doesn’t matter who ends up in the Treasurer’s chair, the problem is the Albanese government’s active inflation agenda, which treats small business as a revenue source, not the backbone of the economy”.
“Small business shouldn’t find out about decisions like this in the newspaper. That’s why the Coalition is fighting for a Small Business Act with a ‘right to be heard’, so the ATO and every other regulator has to consult small business before they pull the rug out from under them, not after”.
“Thousands of small business owners have already made their voices heard at standwithsmall.org. Without real protections, the next ATO card ban is only a Budget away. With them, small businesses can get on with what they do best: employing locals, serving their communities and getting ahead”.
“Australia needs a stand-up economy, not a sit-down economy, where small businesses are backed, not billed”.