The Government announced that it will provide funding over 4 years from 2014-15 to transfer the function for taxation complaints case handling from the Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman to the Inspector-General of Taxation. The Government considers this will enhance the systematic review role of the Inspector-General of Taxation and provide taxpayers with more specialised…
The Government has announced that employers can receive up to $10,000 in Government assistance if they hire a job-seeker aged 50 or older under its new “Restart” program. The program will replace the Seniors Employment Incentive Payment. Under the program, eligible employers will receive $3,000 if they hire a full-time mature-age job seeker who was…
The Government will index pension and equivalent payments and Parenting Payment Single by the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Savings of $449m over 5 years are expected. This measure will commence on 1 July 2014 for Parenting Payment Single recipients and from 1 September 2017 for Bereavement Allowance and pension payments such as: Age Pension; Disability Support Pension; Carer Payment…
The Budget confirmed the Treasurer’s earlier announcement that the Government would raise the eligibility age for the Age Pension to 70 by 2035. The Government announced that, from 1 July 2025, the Age Pension qualifying age will continue to rise by 6 months every 2 years, from the qualifying age of 67 years that will apply by…
Instead of pausing the superannuation guarantee rate at 9.25%, as previously announced, the Government will now increase the SG rate to 9.5% on 1 July 2014 (as currently legislated) and leave it at this level until 30 June 2018. The SG charge percentage will then increase by 0.5% each year until it reaches 12% from 2022-23, a year later…
The Government will allow individuals the option of withdrawing superannuation contributions in excess of the non-concessional contributions cap made from 1 July 2013 and any associated earnings, with these earnings to instead be taxed at the individual’s marginal tax rate. The measure will seek to provide a process to addresses all inadvertent breaches of the superannuation contribution…
The seafarer tax offset will be abolished from 1 July 2015. The seafarer offset is potentially available to any Australian company that employs at least one Australian resident for a minimum of 91 days in the income year on a voyage as a master, deck officer, integrated rating, steward or engineer. The route of the voyage must…
The Government has announced that it will provide small exploration companies with a refundable tax offset for “greenfields” exploration costs under the “Exploration Development Incentive” program to fund exploration for new mineral deposits. The “Incentive” program will target junior exploration companies and will be capped at id=”mce_marker”00m. Date of effect – The “Incentive” program will…
The Government will clarify the treatment of realignments of interests between joint venture partners in the minerals and petroleum industry. The measure will only apply to changes of ownership within a common project (which includes combining neighbouring fields into one project and sharing expenditure in areas such as planning, research and construction of infrastructure). This…
The defeat in the Senate of the Government’s Bills to repeal the carbon tax and the mining tax mean the related repeal of the associated income tax changes is also on hold, creating uncertainty for taxpayers. The defeated Minerals Resource Rent Tax Repeal and Other Measures Bill 2013 had proposed the following tax-related measures: repeal…