Tax concessions go with MRRT: Cormann

Business groups want tax concessions linked to the mining tax retained as they support investment and cash flow.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann

The government has no intention of keeping business tax concessions linked to the mining tax. (AAP)

The federal government has no intention of keeping business tax concessions that are linked to the mining tax, despite a number of business lobby groups urging for their retention.

These groups want the loss carry-back provisions measure kept and the small business instant asset write-off to stay at $6500 rather than being reduced to $1000.

Both those provisions were supposed to be funded by the former Labor government's minerals resource rent tax (MRRT) among a host of other initiatives, such as the SchoolKids Bonus.

However, the MRRT has failed to deliver the revenue that was initially promised.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said the repeal of the MRRT we will be one of the first pieces of legislation that will be introduced into the new parliament.

"Labor made a whole series of unfunded promises that they attached to their failed mining tax," Senator Cormann told reporters in Canberra on Monday.

"The budget we inherited from Labor is a mess," he said.

He said repealing the MRRT and associated initiatives will help repair the budget to the tune of $13.4 billion.

However, shadow treasurer Chris Bowen said the loss carry-back and instant asset write-off concessions reduce compliance costs for small business and are supported by a number of groups, including the Council of Small Business of Australia.

"Labor will be voting against the MRRT repeal legislation because it will mean the government imposing higher taxes on small businesses," he said in a statement.

"In the same breath as claiming they want to cut red tape, the coalition are increasing compliance costs for small business."

The Australian Industry Group in its submission to the draft legislation to repeal the MRRT said that keeping these two small business oriented initiatives would cost $3.8 billion over the federal budget's four-year forward estimates.

But it argues that this "lost" revenue is in reality deferred as in both cases it is essentially a matter of timing of legitimate deductions.

"Both measures have a strong policy rationale and their retention would boost investment and cash flow to the particular benefit of smaller businesses," it says.

The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry acting chief economist Burchell Wilson would also like to see these tax concessions retained.

"But we understand the government has inherited a very difficult budget position ... these concessions are currently unsustainable," he told reporters in Canberra.


Share

3 min read

Published

Updated

Source: AAP


Share this with family and friends


Get SBS News daily and direct to your Inbox

Sign up now for the latest news from Australia and around the world direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to SBS’s terms of service and privacy policy including receiving email updates from SBS.

Download our apps
SBS News
SBS Audio
SBS On Demand

Listen to our podcasts
An overview of the day's top stories from SBS News
Interviews and feature reports from SBS News
Your daily ten minute finance and business news wrap with SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves.
A daily five minute news wrap for English learners and people with disability
Get the latest with our News podcasts on your favourite podcast apps.

Watch on SBS
SBS World News

SBS World News

Take a global view with Australia's most comprehensive world news service
Watch the latest news videos from Australia and across the world