The Budget Savings (Omnibus) Bill 2016 received Royal Assent as Act No 55 of 2016 on 16.9.16, having passed the Senate without amendment the night before. The Bill implements measures announced in the 2016-17 Federal Budget and earlier Budget updates eg:
- introduces Single Touch Payroll (STP) reporting for substantial employers to automatically provide payroll and superannuation information to the Commissioner of Taxation at the time it is created;
- reduces the rates of the tax offset available under the R&D tax incentive for the first $100m of eligible expenditure by 1.5 percentage points. The higher (refundable) rate of the tax offset will be reduced from 45% to 43.5% and the lower (non-refundable) rates of the tax offset will be reduced from 40% to 38.5%;
- changes the way in which fringe benefits are treated under the income tests for family assistance and youth income support payments and for other related purposes;
- pension means testing for aged care residents.
The Bill had previously been amended by the House of Reps by:
- adding a new schedule which provides an income limit of $80,000 on payment of the family tax benefit (FTB) Part A supplement;
- removing proposed amendments that would have stopped relevant social security payments to individuals undergoing psychiatric confinement because of serious offences;
- removing the Energy Supplement only for new recipients of FTB Part A, FTB Part B and the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card;
- restoring funding to the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) of $800m over 5 years to 2021-22; and
- removing proposed amendments to create a Child and Adult Public Dental Scheme.
[APH – Bills Digest] [LTN 180, 16/9/16]