Division
Chris Bowen To continue from last night, I was pointing out to the House that both sides of parliament support, in principle, having a threshold of zero apply to the GST for imports, but that the government has botched the implementation of this measure, which needs to be fixed. I will go into a little more detail about the problems with the government's proposed measure. First, and perhaps most important, is compliance and the government's proposed and projected compliance rates. I mentioned last night that we had referred this bill to a Senate inquiry to allow aeration of the concerns we had and to allow questioning of both the Treasury and interested stakeholders, and I thanked, again last night, Senator Chris Ketter in particular for his excellent work in the committee, because it did confirm a lot of our concerns. Most particularly we asked the Treasury what the compliance rate would be—that is, what percentage of people obliged to pay the tax would actually pay it. The Treasury advised that it expected a compliance rate of between 25 and 30 per cent. That might sound reasonable to start with, 25 to 30 per cent. You might say, 'Well, this will take some time to get going.' But that was the expected compliance rate in the third year, not the first year. The Treasury told the Senate committee that the maximum compliance rate we could expect after three years would be around 30 per cent. We also learned that by 2022-23 the compliance level would hit maturity—peak compliance under the government's model—and that it would be a whopping 54 per cent. So at maturity just over half of those obliged to pay GST on their imports would be complying. That is the best the government can do. This is a very important matter not only for revenue for the states but, even more importantly, for competitive neutrality for small business. Small business are relying on this measure to give them a level playing field. Small business have been told it will give them a level playing fiel
House of Representatives, 2017-06-14. negative: ayes 70, noes 75.
Question
Chris Bowen To continue from last night, I was pointing out to the House that both sides of parliament support, in principle, having a threshold of zero apply to the GST for imports, but that the government has botched the implementation of this measure, which needs to be fixed. I will go into a little more detail about the problems with the government's proposed measure. First, and perhaps most important, is compliance and the government's proposed and projected compliance rates. I mentioned last night that we had referred this bill to a Senate inquiry to allow aeration of the concerns we had and to allow questioning of both the Treasury and interested stakeholders, and I thanked, again last night, Senator Chris Ketter in particular for his excellent work in the committee, because it did confirm a lot of our concerns. Most particularly we asked the Treasury what the compliance rate would be—that is, what percentage of people obliged to pay the tax would actually pay it. The Treasury advised that it expected a compliance rate of between 25 and 30 per cent. That might sound reasonable to start with, 25 to 30 per cent. You might say, 'Well, this will take some time to get going.' But that was the expected compliance rate in the third year, not the first year. The Treasury told the Senate committee that the maximum compliance rate we could expect after three years would be around 30 per cent. We also learned that by 2022-23 the compliance level would hit maturity—peak compliance under the government's model—and that it would be a whopping 54 per cent. So at maturity just over half of those obliged to pay GST on their imports would be complying. That is the best the government can do. This is a very important matter not only for revenue for the states but, even more importantly, for competitive neutrality for small business. Small business are relying on this measure to give them a level playing field. Small business have been told it will give them a level playing fiel
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