The Australian:
Scott Morrison has issued an extraordinary rallying call to corporate leaders to get behind the government’s tax cuts, writing to hundreds of chief executives across the country to warn them they risk a Labor government that could wreck the economy and ruin their businesses.
The Treasurer told the business community that it could no longer “sit on the fence” when it came to supporting Coalition policy to reduce taxes.
“Despite the distractions and interruptions in politics this year, the Turnbull government has remained focused on delivering on our economic agenda,” Mr Morrison told The Australian. “Business knows this is the right way forward and can’t afford to sit on the fence when it comes to supporting policies like our enterprise tax plan. “Labor’s plan is to increase taxes on business and investment. Our plan is the opposite. Business cannot afford to stay out of this contest. It’s not about being partisan, it’s about supporting what they know to be right for our economy.”
And the AFR:
Chief executives from Australia’s biggest companies have pledged to unleash a fresh wave of investment and hire more workers if the corporate tax rate is cut, building pressure on a recalcitrant Parliament to pass the Turnbull government’s enterprise tax plan.
Warning the nation would suffer economic damage if the top rate remained frozen at 30 per cent, four out of five company chiefs told a Business Council of Australia survey their investment plans hinge on embracing a more globally competitive tax regime.
Firing the latest salvo as part of its campaign to build public and political momentum to reduce the tax rate, BCA chief Jennifer Westacott said with Parliament striking a bipartisan agreement on dual citizenship and the same-sex marriage debate close to a resolution, it was time for Parliament to re-focus on the economy.
“Our members employ over 1 million people in Australia, they know that to drive economic growth and create more jobs we must give Australia a competitive company tax system,” she said.
“This survey shows that businesses want to invest, to create more jobs and boost our economic growth – but that we have to get the settings right.”
Do you want to know the truth of it? Australia already has a low effective corporate tax rate:
As the RBA recently said, “the corporate tax rate in Australia was “irrelevant” for domestic investors because of our system of dividend imputation.” International capital chases our fixed endowment of assets regardless of tax rates.
Moreover, in the US, where the effective tax rate is materially higher, the WSJ CEO Council recently asked who would raise investment as it shredded its tax rate. The response was pretty funny:
VIDEO: CEOs asked if they plan to increase their company’s capital investments if the GOP’s tax bill passes.
A few hands go up.
“Why aren’t the other hands up?” Gary Cohn asks.#WSJCEOCouncil pic.twitter.com/TD2oAlN27S— Natalie Andrews (@nataliewsj) November 14, 2017
Let’s not forget that this tax cut will also cost the Budget $8bn per annum according to Treasury, and that the original proposal was a last minute brain fart idea that arrived when the Do-nothing Government realised it had no policies at the eleventh hour of the last election, announced uncosted and unmodeled.
The Do-nothing Government is at it again. It and the BCA needs to get over trickle down economic baloney. The rest of us have.
