Media release
Federal leader of the Palmer United Party and Member for Fairfax Clive Palmer has slammed the Abbott Government’s commitment to helping Australia’s struggling small business operators, saying a new tax system was needed to turbo charge the economy.
With recent modelling conducted by Smart Company indicating the Government’s small business package could result in some businesses actually being worse off, Mr Palmer has renewed his call for an overhaul of the way taxes are paid.
”We need to rethink the way things are done in Canberra as the current system clearly is not working,” Mr Palmer said.
“As I have said in the past we need to expand domestic demand and we can stimulate the economy by changing the way tax is paid by companies.
“Instead of paying tax in advance, based on an estimate of figures, we should allow companies to pay tax based on their actual figures at the end of the year after they have made the money.”
Mr Palmer said this measure would result in more than $70 billion being released into the economy.
“As the money circulates, it will create more jobs, real growth and indeed, more revenue for government.
“At the end of the year, the government will still receive the company tax that it is owed,’’ he said.
At the current low interest rates, Mr Palmer estimates the measure would cost about $800m in the first year which would be more than offset by the substantial increase in government revenue which is expected to be tens of billions.
“This is just one change we can make that will help turbo charge the economy and provide more revenue for government which could then be spent on our schools, our hospitals and our pensioners.
“Increasing our economy and revenue means we can implement changes to make Australians’ lives better,’’ Mr Palmer said.
ENDS