This week I was asked – “So what was in the State Budget?”. To be honest not too many people take a lot of notice of a State Budget. However because of the perhaps surprising result of the Federal election and in particular, the hand that Queensland voters played in that result – there seemed to be more people then usual paying attention to it.
So what did the Honourable Treasurer – Jackie Trad deliver on Tuesday 11th June, 2019? Probably the most promising thing is the raising of the Tax-free threshold for payroll tax from $1.1 million to $1.3million. This will be a welcome relief to around 1500 small to medium businesses in this state. Mind you we are still a way behind Victoria and NSW, WA and the ACT when it comes to having the highest and most competitive payroll tax system to attract businesses to the state.
Unfortunately, larger business with payrolls of greater then $6.5m will be slugged an extra .2%. This will have a negative effect on atleast 6000 businesses.
Foreign property investors will be slugged an extra .5% on the properties as an absentee surcharge. Very few locals will have much sympathy for those impacted by this measure. Drink drivers and speedsters will have penalties increased and again no-one will be too concerned until it actually affects them.
Following the poor showing by Labor in the regional areas its clear that the State Government are trying to allay the concerns of regional Queensland with a significant commitment to infrastructure programs. There will be a $50 billion infrastructure spend. This is a positive and should generate plenty of building industry jobs.
Queensland’s debt is going to reach $90.7Billion and the annual interest bill will be $3.5Billion. What I think is particularly interesting is the State Government is now looking at a razor gang to find efficiencies in the Public Service. The Palaszczuk Government rebuilt the size of the Public Service and now they realise they need to get more efficiencies from the service.
So overall the Government has raised taxes and big business especially – but eventually everyone (as the increase is passed down to consumers) will be paying for it. For more information on how it affects you, call our office on 4972 1300.
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