Every year the treasurer stands up and tells us the financial changes he wants to make over the next “budget period” The important thing to realise here is that these are the changes the government want to make – not changes that have already been made, for the most part the fine detail is not yet written and even if it is it has to pass both houses of parliament, changes can occur along the way and some changes even get totally abandoned before becoming law.
Here are the changes that interest us;
- First home buyers can now salary sacrifice up to $15,000 per year up to $30,000 in total into their super fund to save for a home deposit. This money can then be pulled out to use for the deposit (only this extra money) not really that dis similar from the First Home Buyers accounts which turned out to be totally unused by the public.
- Medicare levy – this goes up 0.5% a tax increase for every Australian taxpayer
- The government will tax the big five banks 0.06% – there are conflicting reports but this seems to be a charge on Liabilities on lent (ie home loans, credit cards) – the government thinks this will increase competition and therefore make home ownership more affordable. I realisity the banks are going to pass this cost directly on to consumers making home loans more expensive, a fact that some of hte big banks have already announced.
Overall really not that exciting for normal mums and dads and small businesses.
Author Alan Maddick 11th May 2017.
Remember these changes are just proposed and we cannot see the actual law yet (with the details) we will update you as these and the other budget measures pass into law.