What do people think of the 2018 Federal Budget?

What does it mean for Small Business Australia?

Who wins, who misses out?

There are a few things in the budget that might be seen as the thin edge of the wedge by some:

1: increased audit activity in relation to work-related expenses for wage earners. Many in the industry see this as a precursor to standard deductions, which itself will be a precursor to no individual returns at all. This would bring Australia into line with a large number of countries, eg UK and NZ. In the short term the effect will be that the cost of your tax return will go UP, or your tax agent will simply not include large work-related claims for such things as car expenses. This can have plenty of flow-on effects: eg who will want to take a car allowance from their employer??? no-one.....so the employer might find himself providing cars to employees who need them for work rather than pay a car allowance.........

2:new industries that will be required to report payments to subcontractors: currently the building industry, but will also include security providers, road freight businesses, and computing services. Its only a matter of time before ALL businesses will be reporting ALL payments to ALL subcontractors.

3: limit to deductions for businesses who pay cash for services to $10,000. Who pays ANYONE $10k CASH????? seriously????

but there are some good measures too:

tax cuts: tick
deduction for assets under $20k extended for another year: tick
simplification of Division 7A (director loans) : tick
cracking down on phoenix arrangements (liquidating a company to avoid debts): tick

There is a LOT more reading and analysis of the budget to be done, but I am sure that LOTS of opinions will be forthcoming...........