Tax handouts

I think it’s unfortunate that you position SMEs as yet another lobby group seeking Government support, AKA taxpayer support.  You play to the sad trend of Australia increasingly coalescing into competing lobby groups, seeking handouts, undue preference, competitive advantage by dint of Government fiat rather than business quality.

In recessions, businesses fail. (They also fail during boom times.) Government measures to ‘prop up’ businesses either do so at the expense of other sectors of the community (and do so grossly ineffectively) or at the cost of Government debt, which has to be repaid.

And the specific measure you suggest (payroll tax relief) is not possible within the federal budget, as payroll taxes are levied by state government. For the sake of credibility, you should at least align your requests for handouts to the correct tier of Government.

Small businesses do best in free markets – markets with low taxes and limited regulation. The best interests of SmartCompany SMEs are served by advocacy for free markets, not handouts or concessions.