Category Archives: Tax

Jim Chalmers ‘furious’ after former PwC tax adviser found to have shared confidential government briefings with staff

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Treasurer vows to ‘throw the book’ at people responsible for breach after unauthorised disclosures of multinational tax consultations

Jim Chalmers has said he is “absolutely furious” at findings a former PwC tax adviser breached the confidentiality of multinational tax consultations by disclosing them to other staff at the firm without authorisation.

On Wednesday, the treasurer promised to “throw the book” at people responsible for what he labelled a “shocking breach of trust, an appalling breach of trust”.

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Minister unable to say whether Zahawi was telling truth when he first said taxes were fully paid – as it happened

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Labour MP asks whether Zahawi statement in the summer was untrue, with Cabinet Office minister saying he does not know the answer

Nadhim Zahawi, the Conservative party chair, has welcomed the decision by Rishi Sunak to ask the No 10 ethics adviser to investigate his case. “I am confident I acted properly throughout,” Zahawi said.

Zahawi seems to be using a narrow definition of “properly”. In the statement he issued yesterday, he accepted that his original decision not to pay the tax that HM Revenue and Customs subsequently concluded he should have paid was down to a careless error. He said:

Following discussions with HMRC, they agreed that my father was entitled to founder shares in YouGov, though they disagreed about the exact allocation. They concluded that this was a ‘careless and not deliberate’ error.

Integrity and accountability is really important to me and clearly in this case there are questions that need answering …

That’s why the independent adviser has been asked to fully investigate this matter and provide advice to me on Nadhim Zahawi’s compliance with the ministerial code, and on the basis of that we’ll decide on the appropriate next steps.

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MP calls for action on crime in ‘under siege’ town – as it happened

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Pearson urges voice dissenters to ‘be smart’

Karvelas also asks Pearson about the concerns that are coming from the left, including Indigenous affairs spokesperson for the Greens, Lidia Thorpe, who will be calling for treaty before voice at the Invasion Day rally.

And when you have a breakthrough response, a breakthrough response like constitutional recognition, you’ve got to grab it. You’ve got to switch from protest to grabbing the opportunity.

… And I believe that a full response to the Uluru statement will achieve actual real reconciliation. We’re at a point in our history where the protest has achieved the result we desire. And, and so we’ve got to be smart about it.

This this year is the most important here in the past 235. That’s my assertion. This is the most important year and and this referendum is the most important question concerning Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians since the first fleet.

We’ve got to understand what is at stake, and that is the chance for reconciliation and if the referendum is kiboshed through game play and spoiling game by the opposition, we will lose the opportunity forever.

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Nadhim Zahawi’s position as Tory chair ‘untenable’, says Labour

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Angela Rayner calls for explanation after it emerged former chancellor paid 30% penalty to settle tax bill

Nadhim Zahawi’s position as Conservative party chair is “untenable” after reports he paid a penalty as part of a seven-figure tax settlement, Labour has said.

The former chancellor, who attends cabinet meetings, has faced pressure in parliament and the media after it emerged he agreed to pay millions to HMRC in December after a settlement with the tax agency.

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Tory mayor condemns ‘broken begging bowl culture’ of Sunak’s levelling up policy – UK politics live

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Latest updates: West Midlands mayor Andy Street says it should be for local decision-makers to determine where money is spent

Rishi Sunak has defended the distribution of levelling up funds, saying that the north of England has received more per head than the south.

Speaking on a visit to Accrington, in Lancashire, he said:

The region that has done the best in the amount of funding per person is the north. That’s why we’re here talking to you in Accrington market, these are the places that are benefiting from the funding.

If you look at the overall funding in the levelling-up funds that we’ve done, about two-thirds of all that funding has gone to the most deprived part of our country.

With regard to Catterick Garrison, the thing you need to know is that’s home to our largest army base and it’s home to actually thousands of serving personnel who are often away from their own families serving our country.

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Doctors warn Australia risks being ‘odd one out’ if it resists sugar tax on soft drinks

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Exclusive: Peak medical body claims Australia could collect $814m annually through a sugar tax, which it says 85 other countries have already implemented

The federal government is at risk of being the “odd one out” internationally if it resists implementing a tax on sugary soft drinks, the Australian Medical Association says, reigniting its calls for a 16 cent levy for every can in an attempt to slash obesity cases and raise funds for public health campaigns.

The AMA said Australia could collect $814m annually by implementing a sugar tax on fizzy drinks, a move it says 85 jurisdictions around the world have already taken.

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Philip Ruddock’s Sydney council challenges legality of GST levies on local government

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Exclusive: Hornsby mayor was a cabinet minister in Howard government when it introduced the tax in 2000

A Sydney council led by the former Howard government minister Philip Ruddock is spearheading a high court case arguing that GST levied on local councils is unconstitutional.

The challenge by Hornsby shire council questions the legality of the goods and services tax it has paid since it was first introduced by the Howard government in 2000.

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NSW stamp duty refunds expected to attract 2,500 applications as land tax scheme launches

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Coalition’s program allowing choice of annual tax over stamp duty could exceed projection of 6,000 applicants

About 2,500 people are expected to retrospectively apply for refunds to stamp duty paid on new homes bought since the middle of November when the New South Wales government’s land tax scheme officially begins.

New estimates from Revenue NSW suggest almost half of the 6,000 new owners who were expected to apply to have their stamp duty payments waived in favour of a land tax in the scheme’s first year will come within days of its introduction on Monday.

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David Pocock wants stage-three tax cuts revisited in light of shrinking workforce

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ACT senator suggests ageing population with proportion of taxpayers declining means situation has ‘changed significantly’ since cuts legislated in 2019

New data on Australia’s ageing population and shrinking workforce should push the government to review the stage-three tax cuts, independent senator David Pocock has said.

Pocock said economic circumstances have “changed significantly” since the Morrison government legislated the tax cuts, with Labor’s support, in 2019.

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Labor under renewed pressure to axe stage-three tax cuts as Australia’s budget woes mount

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The party voted in support of tax cuts while in opposition and went to the election promising no changes to the policy

Warnings from the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, that Australia’s economy is slowing and that the population is ageing have prompted calls to scrap the stage-three tax cuts.

Chalmers said the latest Australian population data showed an ageing population continues to present a demographic challenge for Australia and the budget, with the government having to keep one eye on current challenges, while the other focuses on longer term needs in health, pensions and support services.

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Man who fired gun inside Canberra airport was on parole for attempted murder – as it happened

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Butler defends decision to cut Medicare-funded psychology sessions

The federal health minister, Mark Butler, is speaking to ABC Radio following his decision Monday to cut the number of Medicare psychologist sessions. He’s come under serious heat for the move which experts say is “appalling.”

This program has been around for a number of years, and it has for many years had a limit of 10 sessions for people to access over that long period the average person has used 4 - 5 of those sessions.

This is a good program, I’ve been familiar with it for many, many years, but its problem has always been one of equity.

The evaluation found that the lowest-income communities have more than twice the levels of mental distress as the highest-income communities, but they get the lowest level of support and, under this program, that inequality was substantially worsened by these additional 10 sessions.

People like Prof Ian Hickey said at the time that those additional sessions in a sector with a limit workforce, was going to have the effect of cutting out other people, meaning other people couldn’t get any support whatsoever.

And the evaluation I .. released on Monday showed exactly that, that it had the impact of cutting more people out of the system. Most of those people were in some of the poorest communities, where the evaluation said there is the highest need.

The recommendation of the report was we would consider additional sessions for people with complex needs, now this system was not designed to focus on people with complex needs.

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Australian tax office and police raid 35 businesses as part of crackdown on sales-suppression software

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Raids were part of an international crackdown on those suspected of supplying and using illegal tax-avoiding tools

Police and the Australian Taxation Office have raided 35 businesses across five states as part of an international crackdown on the use of software to avoid paying tax.

The ATO said the raids, conducted with the Australian federal police, targeted businesses suspected of supplying and using illegal electronic sales suppression tools (ESST) in Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania.

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Proposed work-from-home tax changes would mean lower deductions or more paperwork

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If adopted, Australian Tax Office draft guidelines would cut 80c flat rate to 67c and affect tax returns from next July

People working from home would lose hundreds of dollars in tax deductions if new draft guidelines released by the Australian Tax Office are adopted.

Under the proposed changes, those working from home would not be able to claim expenses such as internet, electricity and mobile separately using the popular shortcut method, which sets out a flat rate for hours worked at home, rather than calculating the actual costs.

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Government to crack down on NDIS provider fraud amid warning scheme will soon cost $50bn annually

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Bill Shorten says $126m earmarked in Labor’s October budget will help protect national disability insurance scheme ‘from crooks’

The federal government is creating a “fraud fusion taskforce” to try to claw back nearly $300m from national disability insurance scheme providers, amid warnings the NDIS could cost more than $50bn annually within four years.

The new body, which will replace the existing NDIS fraud taskforce, will target “fraud and serious non-compliance” with the help of law enforcement, regulatory and intelligence agencies.

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Poorer families risk £1,000 hit from earnings-related benefits rise

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Below-inflation rise would save exchequer tenth of £40bn to be given out through tax cuts, says thinktank

If the government raises benefits in line with earnings rather than inflation next year, it would drastically cut the incomes of poorer working-age families, while saving less than a tenth of the cost of recent tax cuts, a leading economic thinktank has calculated.

Such a change, which would mean a significant real-terms cut given that wages are rising at 5.5% with inflation close to 10%, could see the effective income of some families reduced by up to £1,000 a year, the Resolution Foundation said.

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NSW stamp duty overhaul ‘vanilla’ but could help first home buyers cut costs

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Annual tax could be paid for almost 20 years before it equalled the value of a stamp duty payment in parts of western Sydney, calculator suggests

First home buyers could save tens of thousands of dollars under the New South Wales government’s proposal for an optional land tax but housing experts say the “vanilla” plan falls well short of the “revolution” it had initially promised.

On Monday the government said it would introduce its plans for an overhaul of stamp duty into the state’s parliament this week.

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NSW trial to allow prospective first home buyers to swap stamp duty for ongoing land tax

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Buyers will be able to choose a $400 annual fee and 0.3% of the land value while it’s their primary residence instead of stamp duty

Prospective first home buyers in New South Wales will be able to see how much money they would save by opting in to an ongoing land tax instead of stamp duty, with a new online calculator.

The government will introduce legislation this year to trial the First Home Buyer Choice from January.

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Albanese urged not to ‘lose the moment’ for tax reform as he squashes debate on stage-three cuts

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Economists say the tax cuts are unaffordable and should be trimmed or changed, either now or in May

Economists have urged the federal government not to squander the chance for tax reform, after the prime minister hosed down speculation about possible changes to the legislated stage-three cuts in this month’s budget.

The chief executive of the Grattan Institute, Danielle Wood, said she would be “sad” if “we lost the moment” for a substantial discussion about tax changes and hoped a broader debate was still possible before the next budget in May.

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Growing number of Australians want the stage-three tax cuts scrapped, poll shows

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Public opinion for repealing the package jumped 7% from the previous month as people become better informed about the consequences

Public support for the stage-three tax cuts continues to fall, with polling showing increased support for scrapping the $243bn plan.

The last stage of the Morrison government tax reform is not legislated to come into effect until July 2024, but a downturn in the economy has put increased pressure on the Labor government to make a decision on whether it will keep the cuts in place.

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Whistleblower Richard Boyle feared ATO tactics would cause ‘suicide in community’, court hears

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Boyle hopes he will be protected by public interest disclosure laws after he aired claims of aggressive tax office debt collection methods in 2018

The whistleblower Richard Boyle has told a court of his fears that the actions of the Australian Taxation Office would lead to “suicide and death in the community”.

Taking the stand in a hearing seen as a critical first test of whistleblower laws, Boyle alleged ATO employees were put under pressure to bypass normal negotiations with taxpayers who owed money and move quickly towards more aggressive tactics.

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