The Federal Budget, announced on May 13, has changed legislation to ensure that workplace lunches can no longer be considered a salary sacrifice. Paying for lunch with pre-tax money has, not surprisingly, become increasingly popular over the past few years and caterers are disappointed with the government’s decision. In order to receive the benefits employees needed to have a ’smart card’ and upload credit to make pre-tax lunch purchases. The savings for employees were... ...Read more »
The Federal Government is attempting to sharpen the teeth of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission with an increase in funding of $45.2 million over the next four years. The bulk of the funding is to assist the ACCC in their endeavours to keep grocery and petrol prices in check. Funding of $12.9 million will be provided to build and maintain a dedicated consumer grocery website to help consumers locate the cheapest grocery prices. This increase in funding comes two months out... ...Read more »
The Federal Budget was delivered on May 13 to a mixed response as the Government seeks to exhibit a fiscally conservative attitude to the Australian economy. There was consequently a mix of good and bad news for members of the food industry amidst a budget which delivered a record surplus of $21.7 billion. Food producers and manufacturers were winners to some degree but it appears food retail were provided with minimal benefit from the budget. Regional Food Producers Innovation and Productivity... ...Read more »
The Federal Budget always has great implications on businesses and provided below is a number of opinions from select industry groups. Australian Retailers Association The peak industry group in Australia’s retail sector has said that the budget delivers “the good, the bad, and the ugly” for Australian retailers. “By delivering on promises, Australians will benefit from tax cuts of $46.7 billion over four years which will hopefully flow back into a stalled retail consumer... ...Read more »
The Victorian and ACT Governments have released their budgets for 2008/09 and retailers have been provided with some much needed tax relief. The ACT Government announced a 20% payroll tax threshold increase to $1.5 million, which is designed to provide some assistance to small and medium enterprises. The Victorian Government, meanwhile, announced $1.43 billion worth of cuts to taxes and business costs. Treasurer John Lenders claimed the tax cuts were able to be implemented due to the Government’s... ...Read more »