CANBERRA, ACT, June 23 -- The Treasurer of Australia issued the following media release:
The Albanese Government is another step closer to delivering its tax reforms for workers, home buyers, and businesses.
These reforms will make it easier for Australians to buy their first home, cut taxes for over 13 million workers, and better align the tax treatment of labour and asset income.
Today the Greens have confirmed they will support passage of the first tranche of tax reform legislation.
It is now a question for the rest of the Parliament whether they will get on board with tax cuts for workers and a fairer tax system for first home buyers.
The three right wing parties voted against these tax cuts and in favour of big tax breaks for property investors in the House, and now they're planning to vote the same way in the Senate which will mean voting against tax concessions for small businesses as well.
Government amendments to the legislation will mean all 2.7 million active small businesses and 98 per cent of all active businesses will be eligible for generous Capital Gains Tax (CGT) concessions.
The Government will make a number of additional amendments, in line with our announcement on 18 June, to provide as much certainty on the implementation details as possible.
The Government will also support amendments to the NDIS legislation to clarify the implementation of the reforms.
In addition, the Government has agreed to support an amendment that will be moved by the Greens to ban future limited recourse borrowing arrangements (LRBAs) for residential property by superannuation funds.
Superannuation funds are generally prohibited from borrowing money to invest, with the exception of LRBAs that are used by SMSFs.
Multiple inquiries have raised concerns that these arrangements raise risks for superannuation investors, including the 2014 Murray Financial System Inquiry conducted for the Coalition, and limiting new arrangements going forward will help protect people's savings.
These arrangements constitute less than 1 per cent of total residential property borrowing and less than half a per cent of new residential borrowing each year.
These changes don't in any way change the tax arrangements for superannuation, don't impact any existing SMSF borrowing arrangements and provide time to finalise arrangements that are in train.
Labor built superannuation and we'll always look to make it stronger and fairer, and agreeing to these changes will reduce the risks to retirement savings while also securing passage of these important reforms to make the tax system fairer.
Passage of this important legislation this fortnight will provide workers, businesses and investors certainty about the core tax settings that will apply from 1 July 2027.
The Government will continue to develop further tranches of legislation to implement the Budget tax reform package, consistent with the process for legislating other large tax reform packages in the past.
Disclaimer: Curated by HT Syndication.
