By Aimee Chanthadavong
The federal government has announced it aims to restore “integrity” into the Australian tax system by looking at the backlog of unresolved tax reforms, including the GST threshold.
According to federal treasurer Joe Hockey, the federal government is dealing with the final backlog of 92 measures of announced by unlegislated tax and superannuation measures.
“This backlog has created significant operational uncertainty for businesses and consumers,” he said.
“The Government is determined to resolve all policies relating to these matters by 1 December 2013 for inclusion in the Mid Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO).
“The Government intends that the bulk of legislation that is to be progressed should be passed by the Parliament by 1 July 2014.”
Specifically, the government noted it has not not ruled out any decision regarding the low value import threshold.
“Critically yesterday’s announcement made crystal clear that the Government has not ruled on, or more importantly ruled out, changes to the low value threshold and GST, relating to goods purchased from overseas websites,” Australian National Retailers Association CEO Margy Osmond said.
“They have sensibly indicated in yesterday’s statement that they are awaiting the outcome of the business case development currently being undertaken by a Customs and Federal Treasury working group. This work commenced early in 2013 and will be critical to any decision-making by the Government of the day on this issue.”