The Budget this year was reasonably light on new tax announcements for large business, according to Alia Lum, KPMG Tax Policy Partner.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as there are still a number of tax announcements from previous budgets, that are yet to be consulted on or legislated – so Treasury could probably do with some breathing room to catch up on the backlog of announced but unenacted measures.
There was the extension of the instant asset write-offs for small businesses but not much for mid-tier companies. There was also very little in terms of tax reform. Even though there was no expectation of large-scale tax reform in this year’s budget – it would have been good to see some modest tax reforms, such as settings to encourage foreign investment – something Australia needs as a medium-sized capital-importing country.
