From the AFR:
The government has opened up a new front in its battle to fulfil its mandate by releasing draft legislation to repeal the Minerals Resource Rent Tax.
The legislation will be introduced soon after Parliament starts on November 12 and, after the repeal of the carbon tax, will be a priority.
Joe Hockey said:
“The MRRT is a complex and unnecessary tax which struggled to raise the substantial revenue predicted by the former Government….Further still, this failed tax imposed significant compliance costs on one of our most important industries, while damaging business confidence which is critical to future investment and jobs.’’
The $20 million spent on 2010 election, getting the tax rewritten for a start. It’s like a reverse magic pudding this tax. It collects nothing yet something costs firms and enormous amount of money. Ponzi Joe wasn’t finished:
“The repeal of the MRRT package contributes more than $13 billion of savings to the Budget’s bottom line on an underlying cash basis over the forward estimates. The repeal of the MRRT will contribute towards repairing some of the fiscal damage inflicted by the previous government on our nation’s finances.’’
Yes, it’s tax that collects nothing, costs firms heaps, yet cutting it boosts the Government’s balance sheet. Shame about the rebalancing tax cuts and other worthies it funded.
Once the depreciation rorts ended in the future the tax would have collected a lot of money. Now it will go to foreign shareholders and do nothing to boost investment because it only ever kicked in above commercial rates of return. Australia has royally screwed itself on this tax.
