For years, small businesses’ call for tax reform has gone unheeded. Now, days ahead of the election, their voice has grown just a bit louder.
According to a survey by business software maker Intuit, a high 72 per cent of small business owners would like the new government to make tax concessions for small business a priority, besides reforms in many other areas.
“Our survey shows the majority (92%) of small business owners seek help to understand the policies, legislation and laws that affect their business,” said Rich Walker, director, Australian Accountant and Bookkeeper Strategy, at Intuit.
Get us out of this tax maze. Quick
Walker says small business owners, typically, rely on their accountants, government websites and industry associations but expect a lot more to ease their burden.
“There is a lot to navigate through and our research shows, only one in four small business owners (25 per cent) have a very thorough understanding of the legislation and policies that apply to their business, with 1 in 10 (9 per cent) admitting they have very little understanding,” he said.
Consequently, regardless of which party wins the federal election, “we look forward to seeing efforts to ease the regulatory burdens for small businesses and increase the proactive information about compliance issues that comes their way,” added Walker.
Here are some other major findings of the survey of 1,000 small business owners:
- 43 per cent sought easier financial reporting;
- 37 per cent sought simpler BAS;
- 30 per cent want simpler GST; and
- 27 per cent demand change in superannuation rules.
Clearly, “the data shows that a move by the next government to make understanding policies and legislation much easier will be welcomed by small businesses,” Walker said.
Intuit makes QuickBooks, a small business accounting software that is used by more than 4.5 million customers, and other software.
