ATO given money for GST

THE Australian Taxation Office will receive $43.5 million over the next two years to help implement the Government’s tax changes.

A further $23 million over four years will be used to establish a non-statutory Board of Taxation and to respond to the increased demands for tax policy advice.

The Board will advise the Treasury on the development and improvement of taxation policy.

CPA Australia welcomed the long-awaited announcement in the Federal budget.

CPA Australia chief executive David Edwards said the Board should be established as soon as possible as it was critical to the effective implementation of the tax changes.

A statement issued by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu said they had discovered that the savings to business from the tax changes would be much lower and harder to unlock than the Government had indicated.

“We are finding that the cost of GST implementation and compliance is exceeding everybody’s expectations,” the statement said.

“Businesses grappling with the new tax will not be overjoyed by the additional $22 million over two years the Budget provides for the Government’s watchdog, Allan Fels.

“Professor Fels and the Austra-lian Competition and Consumer Commission are major factors in the politics of the GST,” it said.

“His job is to reassure consumers that businesses are not using the GST to rip them off.”