The NSW Business Chamber is urging the state opposition to rethink its plan to reverse promised payroll tax relief for small businesses, and has launched an online petition as part of its ‘Keeping NSW Number 1’ campaign for the March 23 state election. The petition can be found at www.jobstax.com.au.
Changes legislated last year by the NSW Government will see an increase to the payroll tax threshold from $750,000 to $850,000 in the first year, and then by $50,000 per year for the next three years. As a result, businesses with an annual payroll of around $750,000 will be able to hire two extra young job seekers without being hit with a tax penalty and extra administrative costs. The NSW Opposition have recently announced that they will not proceed with the planned further increases to the threshold if elected to government.
“Today we’re calling on the Opposition to reverse their decision which will hurt job creation in the Illawarra and hold back our region’s 7,893 small-to-medium enterprises,” said Adam Zarth, Executive Director of the Illawarra Business Chamber.
“We joined local chambers of commerce across the Illawarra and the rest of the state to successfully campaign for an increase to the payroll tax threshold in the last state budget, and to have this win reversed would impose a significant burden back on small businesses, including $10,000 in administration costs,” Mr Zarth said.
“There is no doubt the Opposition’s plan would pull a handbrake on jobs growth in the Illawarra and hurt small and family businesses who are looking to hire additional staff, for relatively little additional state revenue.”
Peter Smith, CEO of Integrity Pumps in Unanderra, supported the increases to the payroll tax threshold, and now says that his business would be unable to hire more staff and that this would be reflected across the region.
“I’ve hired two more staff since the payroll tax threshold was lifted, so it is disappointing to hear that the Opposition doesn’t support these tax cuts,” said Mr Smith.
“Lifting the payroll tax threshold to $1 million was something I supported very strongly because, as a small business, this tax creates significant administration and prevents me from hiring additional staff when I need them,” he said.
Sean Vickery, Managing Director of GJ Gardner Homes said that he supported the Chamber’s campaign as his business would be affected by the Opposition’s proposal.
“As the employer of 38 staff, we will definitely be affected by this high payroll tax threshold, and so I will be urging Illawarra business owners to sign this petition,” said Mr Vickery.
