The latest MYOB Business Monitor has placed the “temporary” $20,000 instant asset tax write off at the top of this year’s SME wish list for Government.
The bi-annual national survey of over 1,000 small businesses asked what policies operators would vote for or against and keeping the write-off for businesses under $2 million in revenue was Number One with a whopping 68 per cent supporting it.
MYOB Tim Reed called for the policy to become a permanent fixture.
“It’s such an important policy for business wanting to kick-start their growth. We’re seeing a real buzz in the small business community and this will only help that become a roar.”
“Next on the policy list was that old chestnut – making GST and BAS compliance simpler. This has been an issue for SMEs for years now. It’s a relatively simple move which has strong support, with 66 per cent saying they would vote for this change. It’s time we got on with this so SMEs can get on with the business of growth, which benefits us all,” he said.
“SMEs were also keen to see government supporting them in an entirely different way – 61 per cent wanted Government to assign a proportion of their billions in procurement contacts to small business,” Reed said. “While Minister Hunt’s announcement of the Business Research and Innovation Initiative was a welcome step for small business in some specific sectors, it would be great to expand this approach.”
“It is interesting to note that such a large number of small business (60 per cent) support reducing the company tax rate for all businesses. Small-business owners understand that as suppliers to big business, a tax policy that increases investment from larger companies will directly lead to revenue for smaller businesses, and also have a broad positive effect of creating more jobs,” added Reed.
The Business Monitor also found the following measures has strong support:
- Reducing the company tax rate from 30 per cent to 28.5 per cent – 60 per cent
- The establishment of an incentive bonus for business employing people over 50 – 59 per cent
- Increased Federal Government funding for skills, training and apprenticeship programs – 57 per cent
- More Federal Government investment in transport infrastructure in our major States and cities – 56 per cent
- Increased Government funding for innovation, research and development by Australian businesses – 55 per cent
- Offering a wage subsidy for employing young Australians – 51 per cent
Reed added that with almost half of SMEs sitting on the fence when it comes to their view of the Federal Government, opportunity is knocking for policy change.
“Just 22 per cent were satisfied with the Government’s performance and 33 per cent dissatisfied. There were, however, 44 per cent who were neither. The Government has the chance here to make some major inroads with Australia’s 2.1 million SME operators, who also employ millions more – that’s a lot of voters. These Business Monitor results have shown us just what will make that difference.”
The Business Monitor asked operators about their level of support for State Government. Dissatisfaction overall was 40 per cent, but there were some marked differences between the states. Queensland operators were the most dissatisfied with their State Government (51 per cent), followed by South Australia and Western Australia both with 50 per cent dissatisfaction. This was in sharp contrast to Victoria and New South Wales, with 29 and 37 per cent, respectively.
Inside Small Business
