Latest news with #taxfreeze
News.com.au
7 days ago
- Business
- News.com.au
PM will honour a big election promise as he moves to tackle cost of living
Anthony Albanese will move to freeze beer taxes on Thursday honouring his election pitch to tackle the cost of living. The Prime Minister confirmed during the election that 'we will freeze the indexation on draught beer excise for two years' in what he described as a win for beer drinkers and hospitality businesses. With schooners and pints tracking closer to $15 and $20 in major cities, publicans have expressed fears the steep prices are driving customers away. It follows warnings that a half of the cost of a $59.99 slab of Coopers Pale Ale was going to the taxman. On Thursday, the Albanese Labor Government will table tariff proposals to stop the excise and customs duty on beer from increasing from 1 August. The Albanese government has confirmed it will amend the legislation to temporarily pause the indexation on excise and customs duty. The pause on indexation for excise and customs duty will be in place for two years from 1 August 2025. The Albanese Government said that the excise and customs tariff proposals tabled in Parliament will be ratified by primary legislation to be introduced in coming months. However, the tariff proposal on Thursday will stop the price of beer increasing due to indexation until that freeze is legislated. 'Continuing to deliver cost of living relief to Australians is our number one priority,'' Mr Albanese told 'Freezing the excise on draught beer is a common sense measure that is good for beer drinkers, good for brewers and good for pubs.' Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the government remained focused on easing the cost of living for Australians. 'This will help take a bit of pressure off beer drinkers, brewers and bars,'' he said. 'Whether it's a tax cut for every taxpayer, help with energy bills, or the new relief that's rolling out this month like higher wages for award workers, we're doing everything we responsibly can to help with the cost of living.' understands the cost to the budget in tax revenue foregone will be $95 million over four years. But it's not all beer. It needs to be coming off tap in a licensed hospitality venue, so only schooners and pints of beer from your local watering hole will be blessed with a tax freeze. Those who prefer buying their beer, or any other alcohol, from the bottle-O can expect prices to keep rising. Last year Anthony Albanese said cutting beer taxes wasn't a priority for his government. 'We are not looking at that at the moment, but obviously in the lead-up to budgets, you have submissions and I'm sure that there'll be submissions along a whole range of ways,' he told 3AW. 'One of the things that we have to do though, is look at ways where we provide cost of living support, while putting downward pressure on inflation.' Health Minister Mark Butler was singing the same tune back then, insisting that the government's focus was on 'cheaper medicines, not beer'. Nationals leader's lonely call for action David Littleproud faced a backlash last year from senior Liberals after floating the prospect of a beer tax relief because the price was 'hitting a tipping point.' 'I'm part of the shadow expenditure review committee and our final taxation policy has not been determined,' he said. 'That will be determined by the National Party and the Liberal Party. That's why we'll be running the ruler over this. 'When we determine the taxation policy we'll take to the next election, it'll be a Coalition policy.' But the big idea was slammed down by the opposition treasury spokesman Angus Taylor. 'The starting point to reducing the pressure of indexation is to get inflation down,' Mr Taylor said. Opposition finance spokeswoman Jane Hume also wasn't a big fan. 'I always like the idea of free beer. But, unfortunately, that might not be the policy slogan that you'll be seeing us going into the election with,' she said. Ahead of the announcement, the Australian Hotels Association CEO Stephen Ferguson noted that beer and spirits tax quietly goes up twice a year every year and complained that the Government's only response is to refer pubs to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. 'Australia's beer tax is already the third highest in the OECD. There's also $38 tax on a $60 bottle of whisky or gin. That is outrageous and the voters are awake to it,'' Mr Ferguson said.
BBC News
09-07-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Starmer refuses to rule out extending freeze on tax thresholds
Sir Keir Starmer has refused to rule out extending the freeze on tax thresholds, which has seen millions of people dragged into paying higher rates. The freeze on National Insurance (NI) and income tax thresholds, introduced under the Conservatives, is currently due to end in April asked during Prime Minister's Questions whether the government still planned to lift the freeze, Sir Keir only said he was committed to Labour's election manifesto. This included a pledge not to increase National Insurance (NI), income tax or VAT - but no specific promise on thresholds. Government U-turns on cutting disability benefits and winter fuel payments for pensioners have piled pressure on the government's spending plans, with economists saying tax rises are now likely in the autumn major concessions on the government's flagship benefits plan, potential savings of around £5bn will now be delayed or lost entirely. Tax thresholds - the income levels at which people start paying NI or income tax, or have to pay higher rates - typically increased every year in line with inflation. However, income tax thresholds have been frozen since 2021/22. This means people risk being dragged into a higher tax band, or paying tax on their income for the first time, if they get a pay the freeze until 2029/30 could raise an estimated £7bn a year. In her Budget speech last autumn, Chancellor Rachel Reeves said extending the freeze "would hurt working people" and pledged to lift thresholds in line with inflation again from 2028/29. However, asked by Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch if this was still government policy, Sir Keir did not rule out continuing the freeze. "No prime minister or chancellor is going to write a Budget in advance. We are absolutely fixed on our fiscal rules. We remain committed to them," he told the Commons."We remain committed to our Budget, to our manifesto commitments."The PM's answer contrasted to his previous response to Badenoch, when asked if he stood by Labour's promise not to increase income tax, NI or VAT. His reply to this was simply: "Yes."The government's self-imposed fiscal rules include not borrowing to fund day-to-day spending and to get government debt falling as a share of national income by 2029/29. The rules are designed to reassure financial markets but sticking to them limits the government's options and makes tax rises more likely. Sign up for our Politics Essential newsletter to read top political analysis, gain insight from across the UK and stay up to speed with the big moments. It'll be delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
CBC
07-05-2025
- Business
- CBC
Property assessment freeze in 2026 may force 'difficult decisions,' minister admits
Social Sharing The New Brunswick government says it hopes municipalities will be able to absorb a broad property assessment freeze in 2026 without raising tax rates on property owners. But if municipal budget figures from this year are a guide, that may be a tall order. At a news conference Wednesday, Aaron Kennedy, the minister responsible for Service New Brunswick, said he hopes municipalities will be able to scrape by in 2026 on revenue assessment increases they can generate outside the freeze and by making "difficult decisions" about how they spend money in their communities. "I appreciate their frustration with the announcement, but I think when you take into consideration that sales and new construction and major renovations is excluded from the freeze there are many municipalities that won't have a freeze in their revenues," Kennedy said. WATCH | 'You, as government, need to do something,' province told by homeowners: Will N.B.'s property assessment freeze actually help lower tax bills? 3 hours ago Duration 1:25 New Brunswick Local Government Minister Aaron Kennedy says homeowners angry with their rising property tax bills persuaded the province to freeze property assessments in 2026. But a similar freeze in 2018 was partially nullified when 41 municipalities raised their property tax rates in response. In Saint John, Mayor Donna Reardon said the city has a number of financial obligations that are already fixed for next year, including negotiated wage increases for unionized employees, that cannot easily be managed in the absence of revenue growth. "We have four unions we have contracts with and their wages won't be frozen," Reardon said. "It's difficult." Had a similar freeze been imposed in the current year, Saint John budget documents suggest the city would have had significant problems making ends meet. Saint John did experience about $2 million in increased tax revenue this year from new construction, but that is well short of what would have been needed to finance a $6.8-million increase — or 3.5 per cent — in municipal expenditures and a $2.6-million reduction in the city's tax rate in the 2025 budget. Some combination of higher tax rates and service cuts adding up to $7 million or more would have been needed to make that budget balance under a freeze this year. Kennedy said a $63-million increase in funding to local government's from the province announced in this year's budget should also help soften the blow of the assessment freeze, although he said decisions on how much of those increases each municipality will receive will be made at a later date. In 2018, during New Brunswick's last assessment freeze, 41 New Brunswick communities did eventually raise tax rates to finance their budgets that year.
CBC
07-05-2025
- Business
- CBC
Will N.B.'s property assessment freeze actually help lower tax bills?
New Brunswick Local Government Minister Aaron Kennedy says homeowners angry with their rising property tax bills persuaded the province to freeze property assessments in 2026. But a similar freeze in 2018 was partially nullified when 41 municipalities raised their property tax rates in response.
