Liberal National Party candidate for Bowman, Henry Pike, says that Labor’s Budget-in-Reply address has failed to jettison tax hikes to family and discretionary trusts, one of the most dangerous policies taken by Labor to the last federal election.
Mr Pike said that small businesses were the heart of the Redlands economy and Labor’s plans to impose new trust taxes would hit them hard when they can least afford it.
“Many small businesses in the Redlands operate through a family or discretionary trust, this is especially true of small family businesses,” Mr Pike said.
“Trusts provide flexibility in helping small businesses manage cashflow. They also have benefits in asset protection and succession and estate planning.”
The Australian Taxation Office has estimated that more than one million small businesses across Australia use trusts.
“Labor have left the door wide open to continue with their policy of imposing a new 30% tax rate on distributions from trusts in the form of a supplementary personal income tax for the trust’s beneficiaries,” Mr Pike said.
“This is a simply a way to extract more taxes off hard working Redland business.”
“Many of the men and women in the Redlands that I talk to who are operating small businesses don’t take a salary, instead they distribute profits to themselves, when they can, via a family or discretionary trust.”
“They’ve been doing it tough over the last two years the last thing they need right now is new tax hikes.”
Mr Pike said there was now a stark choice between more taxes under Labor, or a continuation of the Liberal and Nationals Government which has established the lowest tax rates in 50 years and record investment incentives.
It is estimated the 17,000 businesses within the Redlands will benefit from new measures in the 2022/23 Federal Budget.
For every hundred dollars a small business spends on training their employees or on digital technologies, they will be eligible for a $120 tax deduction. Investments of up to $100,000 per year will be supported by this new Federal Government measure.
Background: