The South Australian Business Chamber Chief Executive Nigel McBride said that the South Australian Business Chamber had pushed strongly in recent years to extend the proposed company tax threshold to $50 million, to enable all businesses to be more competitive.
“We are pleased to see the Federal Government’s decision today will assist those businesses even further by fast tracking the benefit from a reduced company tax rate,” Mr McBride said.
“From our quarterly surveys of business expectations, company tax and payroll tax are the key taxes constraining SME growth. A recent report by Alpha Beta also provided preliminary evidence that the first tranche of tax cuts introduced in July 2015 are already showing some small, but statistically significant, signs of boosting investment and employment numbers amongst small businesses.”
Mr McBride said while it was evident in our surveys that South Australian business confidence had increased since the state election, along with general business conditions, the decision today would help convert that improved confidence to an increase in investment and jobs.
The tax cuts will benefit more than 100,000 South Australian companies and unincorporated businesses.
“Australia’s top company tax rate of 30 per cent is eight per cent above the OECD average of just under 22 per cent, which means we have been uncompetitive for some time,” Mr McBride said.
“Expediting the cuts would begin to level the playing field for our exporters, particularly while they deal with the otherwise high costs of doing business in Australia, including battling excessive power and water costs.”
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