THIS will be a huge week for WA’s legislative framework.
The controversial Industrial Relations and Tax Administration Bills are due to go to Parliament and the committee consulting on changes to Payroll Tax legislation are due to have their final meeting tomorrow.
The committee has been meeting “in camera” since late last year to discuss rules that will let the Government broaden its payroll tax legislation to draw “employee-like” contractors into the payroll tax net.
However, in recent weeks State Revenue has hit several engineering companies with retrospective payroll tax bills under its existing legislation, causing tax experts to question the need for the new payroll tax laws.
After the meeting tomorrow, it is expected a draft Bill will be forwarded to Treasurer Eric Ripper within a fortnight and be before Parliament about one month after that.
It is due to come into effect on July 1.
The Tax Administration Bill, a law more than seven years in the making, threatens to make company directors personally liable for unpaid State taxes.
Opponents of the Bill argue it will, if it becomes law, make the Office of State Revenue the most powerful tax collector in Australia.
The Government introduced the Bill saying it had been developed in an effort to simplify WA’s tax system.
The industrial relations legislation has business groups worried because it abolishes the successful workplace agreements system and gives unions wider access to workplaces.
