2013-14 Federal Budget perspectives before lock-up

This week brings the release of the Federal Budget. The Tax Institute's President, Steve Westaway CTA and Tax Counsel, Deepti Paton CTA will join me in the Budget “lock-up” starting tomorrow afternoon. This allows The Tax Institute access to all of the Budget papers and announcements ahead of their public release on Tuesday evening.

Members will receive our initial comments on the Budget and a summary of the tax measures by way a special Budget edition of TaxVine that will be sent shortly after the Treasurer delivers his Budget speech at 7.30pm.

With the surplus commitment long-gone and with the tax revenue shortfall ballooning at a rate of $50 million every day since the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook in October 2012, the scene is set for an atypically tight election year Budget. The actual size of the deficit and the details of the tax changes that are being pursued in order to minimise its size will be revealed on Tuesday. This will then set the scene for the final 19 sitting days of Parliament before the election, which is still another four months away.

The Tax Institute’s priorities for the Budget are contained in our submission to the Treasurer earlier this year.  We note that the growing stockpile of announced yet unenacted tax measures is fuelling uncertainty in the business community and hampering investment. The Budget submission also outlines a number of priority areas of the tax law that are in need of urgent and significant reform.

Robert Jeremenko
Robert
Jeremenko

Robert Jeremenko CTA is Senior Tax Counsel of The Tax Institute.

The Tax Institute is Australia’s leading professional association in tax. Its 13,000 members include tax agents, accountants and lawyers as well as tax practitioners in corporations, government and academia.

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