Storer looking at broadening GST base

Key independent senator Tim Storer says he would look at broadening the base of the GST as part of wider tax reform.

Broadening the base of the goods and services tax could be one way for the government to win independent senator Tim Storer's support for company tax cuts.

The South Australian senator is refusing to back the corporate tax cut in parliament, because he says the benefit is too modest compared to the multi-billion dollar cost.

But he told ABC radio he wants to see deeper tax reform, including a potential broadening of the GST.

"I would look at that, absolutely ... I would review it as I have done this tax bill," Senator Storer told ABC radio in Adelaide on Wednesday.

He said he wanted to see measures from Ken Henry's review of the tax system brought in to make sure the budget can return to surplus.

"There is doubt about the actual ability of the current taxation system to generate budget surpluses in the medium term," Senator Storer said.

"(But) I shouldn't really be drawn on what specifically should be the first cab off the rank."

The former Nick Xenophon Team candidate also ruled out joining Labor, despite joining and then quitting Labor as a branch member in 1996 and 2013.


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Source: AAP



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