Via Domainfax:
Shadow cabinet had planned on announcing its position on the $10 million to $50 million repeal at the same time as confirming it would not take away the reduction for companies earning $2 million to $10 million. The plan was to announce the decision after five crucial byelections were held in late July, senior sources confirmed.
“There were different views within a broad church,” one Labor frontbencher said.
There are only 20,000 businesses in the $10 million to $50 million bracket, but there are nearly 100,000 earning between $2 million and $10 million a year – a much bigger pie.
It was hoped the decision to back in smaller businesses would overshadow any negative press from hitting higher earning businesses with a repeal. Shorten’s fumble bungled that.
More at the AFR:
Labor leader Bill Shorten is considering backing down altogether from revoking tax cuts for small and medium enterprises following a fierce internal backlash against plans to limit tax relief to firms with turnovers of either $2 million or $10 million.
Last night, sources close to the Labor leader said Mr Shorten and shadow treasurer Chris Bowen, who are working together, were “open-minded” to keeping the tax cuts that have already been legislated by the Turnbull government for companies with turnovers capped at $50 million.
…While no final decision had been made as of early Thursday evening, sources said keeping the company tax cut argument confined towards the bigger companies would enable Labor to keep the focus on the banks and other big firms.
Do it clean and quick. Move on.
