Shadow Minister Media Releases
Shadow Minister for Small Business Says Red Tape Review Unlikely To Be Effective ( 17/10/2007)
The ‘review’ into red tape today announced by Minister Tripodi is unlikely to deliver any real reform of the myriad of taxes imposed on small business in NSW, Shadow Minister for Small Business and Regulatory Reform, Don Page said today.
“The NSW Government imposes 25 State taxes on small business in NSW, the largest number of State taxes imposed by any State Government in Australia.”
“Yet the Minister for Small Business did not talk about State taxes at all when announcing his red tape review in Parliament today.”
“His solution is to set up yet another committee to review red tape when the overwhelming need is to reduce the number and quantum of State taxes in NSW,” Mr Page said.
According to a report published by the Business Council of Australia last April the NSW Government levies 25 separate taxes on business with only 15 in Tasmania.
“Not only do we have far too many State taxes, their administration and collection is unnecessarily complex,” Mr Page said
“This Government has had 12 years to reduce red tape but has done very little.”
“A good place to start would be for the Government to announce that for every new regulation introduced, they would eliminate two regulations. That way we might see a real reduction in red tape,” Mr Page said.
Examples of the taxes imposed by the NSW Government include: Bush Fire Services levy/fire levy; Duty on vehicle registration and transfers; Insurance Premium tax; Insurance Protection tax; Vehicle registration fees; Weight tax; Payroll taxes; Debits tax; Duty on hire of goods/rental business duty; Duty on the acquisition of businesses/goodwill; Land tax; Land transfer duty/conveyance duty; Mortgage duty; Unquoted marketable securities duty; Congestion/parking space levy; Landfill levy/waste and environment levy; and liquid waste levy.
