Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the House for this opportunity to record some of my views on the Tax Laws Amendment (2009 Measures No. 2) Bill 2009. Firstly, it is a bill designed to either amend, fix or otherwise bring into order a range of tax matters and issues in order to provide for a more robust, better, more efficient and streamlined taxation system. That is at the core of not only what this government has been about in coming to government but also what we philosophically believe in terms of providing a system not only for ordinary PAYG taxpayers but also for business—small, medium and large—to provide them with the tools that they need to get on with the job of business. As such, this tax laws amendment bill works to improve the current system. Secondly, it deals with a number of very important matters that are specific to recent tragedies of the bushfires in Victoria and other places. I acknowledge the comments by previous speakers in relation to that.

It is a fairly straightforward bill. It has a number of schedules, and I will work through those systematically. Schedule 1 outlines the financial claim schemes that were enacted in October 2008. The introduction of the legislation for these schemes was brought forward because of the global financial crisis, so it was not able to include the consequential taxation amendments at that particular point. The present package contains those taxation amendments. In broad terms, it aims to provide the same taxation treatment for payments that APRA makes under the financial claim schemes as would have applied to payments made by the failed financial institution or insurance company.

It also deals with capital gains and losses specifically in relation to rights that were created by the financial claim schemes which are ignored. Payments in relation to a farm management deposit, for example, or a retirement savings account or a first home saver account will generally have to be made into another account of the same type. That poses some challenges in terms of reordering that. What this does is ensure that the normal restrictions on withdrawing amounts from those particular accounts are maintained.

It is important for the integrity of the tax system, for the policies of this government and for taxpayers generally that taxpayer money being placed into these types of schemes and accounts be properly accounted for and that the restrictions that normally apply are applied right across the board. This ensures that the normal restrictions on withdrawing amounts are properly maintained. Those payments will generally be treated as a rollover from one account to another account to avoid them being treated as if they were a new account being opened, which they are not. APRA will be subject to the same obligations to withhold amounts from payments and to the same reporting obligations in relation to amounts withheld or rolled over that the failed institution would have been. That will provide the necessary integrity and clarity for people who find themselves covered by these changes.

Schedule 2 increases the access for small business to capital gains tax concessions. It deals with not only tax concessions on capital gains but also losses. This is for taxpayers who own a capital gains tax asset which is used in a business but specifically by an affiliate or an entity connected with that taxpayer and for partners owning a capital gains tax asset which is used in the partnership business. This will have effect from the 2007-08 income year. It is important to recognise that, for many businesses and partnerships, assets are owned by different entities within that business or across partnerships and they should have the same capital gains tax concessions as other parties. It is a fairly sensible and straightforward change that needs to be made, and we are making it.

I note that these amendments have been actively sought by industry as part of our process of consultation with industry and with the sector. We need to make sure that we reduce the amount of red tape, compliance burdens and costs on small business and so we need to move quickly to make these changes and bring about a fairer, better and more efficient system of taxation.

The amendments under schedule 2 also make a number of changes to clarify and refine elements of the small business capital gains tax concessions so they operate in a flexible manner, as is the proper intent. Industry stakeholders did express support for the measures during the consultation process; in fact, a number of stakeholders suggested additional changes to the scope and application of the small business capital gains tax concessions. Although they were not adopted, as they were beyond the scope of the current amendments, they were certainly listened to and formed part of the decision-making process. Another reason those changes were not adopted is that we believed they would lead to more complex provisions or greater compliance costs for taxpayers. Overall, schedule 2 brings about some necessary changes. (Quorum formed) Mr Deputy Speaker Scott, this is an outrageous abuse of the democratic process in this place—to gag a speaker on such a controversial piece of legislation such as the Tax Laws Amendment (2009 Measures No. 2) Bill 2009! I note for the record that we have got only two members of the opposition in here, because none of the others can be bothered to come in and hear about a decent piece of legislation that deals with a whole range of tax measures that their mob over there had 12 years to fix. They could not be bothered, in 12 years, to do anything—

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