Labor will put company tax rate back up for some businesses if it wins the next federal election
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Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has made the next election a referendum on tax, with a promise to increase the company tax rate if Labor wins government.
Key points:
- Labor says it would reverse a company tax cut for businesses with turnover between $10 million and $50 million
- Party still deciding whether it would also increase corporate tax rate for businesses between $2 million and $10 million
- Company tax rate will have already fallen from 30 per cent to 27.5 per cent for all businesses by next election
Mr Shorten said a Labor government would repeal company tax cuts for businesses with turnover between $10 million and $50 million.
The Senate has so far refused to pass the Government's full plan for corporate tax cuts.
But last year the Government secured crossbencher Nick Xenophon's support to gradually reduce the tax rate for businesses with a turnover of up to $50 million.
The rate has already fallen from 30 per cent to 27.5 per cent for businesses with a turnover of up to $25 million and from next week that cut will apply to businesses with turnover up to $50 million.
Mr Shorten said a Labor Government would reverse that tax cut for businesses with turnover of more than $10 million a year.
Labor is still deciding whether it would also repeal the tax cut for the smaller businesses, with turnover of between $2 million and $10 million.
"We'll support any Australian business with an under $2 million turnover to get a tax reduction, because we think small business could always do with all the assistance it can get," Mr Shorten said.
"Beyond that, we're considering our position between $2 and $10 million turnovers."
The Government said if Labor decided to repeal the tax cut for all businesses with turnover of between $2 and $50 million, then 94,000 businesses with nearly 3.5 million employees would be affected.
Labor has also said it will repeal the personal income tax cuts that passed the Senate last week.
It sets up the next election as a contest on the nature of the tax system.
The Government argues it is making companies more internationally competitive by reducing their tax rate, but Labor says the priority should be to spend on health, education and the NBN.
Mr Shorten said his message to business was that Labor would "make sure that you've got highly skilled apprentices, we'll make sure that when your workers are sick they can get to see that doctor quickly so they can return to work more effectively".
Topics: government-and-politics, federal-elections, elections, federal-government, federal-parliament, alp, political-parties, tax, company-news, business-economics-and-finance, australia
