OP-ED: Small business tax cuts ripple through local communities

It’s only something you understand if you’ve lived it.

If you’ve ever paid tax as a small business, you would understand why it should be lower.

You would understand how tax cuts help you hire more people and expand your operation. You would know how confidence rises through cuts in the company tax.

You would know the nights spent wondering how staff wages will be paid. The nights spent buried in unnecessary paperwork. You would know the early mornings where you go to work, wondering if you’ll make money.

For many small businesses, this is life. Not a life of luxury, nor a life of riches. It’s a life of hard work, of passion and of ambition. A life of having a go, of employing people and of creating opportunities.

And that’s why our focus — as the Coalition government — is to make life in small business better.

To help small business grow, we have cut its tax rate to the lowest level since World War II.

To help small business expand, we have extended the $20,000 instant asset write-off for a year.

To help small business finish paperwork faster, we have $300 million on the table for the states and territories to cut more red tape.

We do this because the stories of ambition and success in small business are real. They are Australians who are having a go and employing people.

On my nationwide small-business roadshow, which this week will have visited more than 50 communities in the past few weeks, we have heard from hundreds of Australians who are doing just that.

It’s people like Kate Marland, whose family-owned jewellers in Bundaberg’s main street used the instant asset write-off to buy a new laptop and printer. I met Kate recently and she told me how our one-year extension will help her buy a specialty drill to help make more handmade jewellery to sell.

It’s people like Alana Laliotisis, whose Parramatta Greek cafe bought new kitchen equipment and it caused a “chain reaction” through the business, to staff morale and happy customers.

It’s stories like these from real people which shows our support works. It shows there are people who want to grow and — most importantly — it shows there are businesses wanting to create jobs.

Small business is Australia’s big job creator — 5.6 million Australians go to work in our 3.2 million small businesses every day.

This year’s budget backs small business, because a strong small business sector will boost Australia’s economy.

We want small business to have a go, to invest and — most importantly — to create more jobs. And our budget is a targeted, fully-funded plan to do that.

We know when small business does well there’s a multiplier effect through the local economy.

If an office buys a new iPad or computers, or a cafe business buys that new coffee machine, or tradies buy new tools, often it’s bought locally. 

It helps the small business buying it to make their work easier and it creates what small businesses tell me is a ‘chain reaction’ through the business and the local economy. So if you’re a small business — the message I want you to take away is simple.

Go for it. Buy that new equipment. Hire that extra person. Pursue that new idea. Chase those opportunities.

I did it for eight years, and I know the challenges and the rewards running your own small business can bring.

That’s why this year we’ve delivered policies as the Coalition government to back you.

 Unlike most Coalition MPs, others, such as many in Labor, have not been where you are.

They have not had the sleepless nights over wages, nor the nights spent poring over paperwork.