Mr TOYNE - 2000-03-02
From 1 July 2000, GST will be payable on school fundraising activities. The Tax Office’s GST Guide to Schools - and I seek leave to table an extract of that …
Leave granted.
Mr TOYNE: …shows that GST will be payable on proceeds of cake stalls. But even worse, GST will only be payable if the price of a cake sold is more than 50% of the market value of a cake sold outside the school. Does the minister still agree with the Chief Minister and Treasurer that turning mums and dads into accountants and market analysts on behalf of their children’s school represents a great leap forward for Territorians?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, it’s interesting to note that the opposition is attacking the minutiae of a whole tax package. The GST is a component of a whole tax package. And it’s currently set at 10%. What GST actually means is a goods and services tax. It’s on goods and services. Therefore you would expect that it applies to goods and services. And that’s true, it does. But it doesn’t apply to education courses and things like that. Because it’s part of a whole tax package, there are other aspects to it, and that is tax cuts for most Australians of the order of $50 a week.
The GST is currently set at 10%. All of that money comes back to the states and the territories, so if it is part of a tax package, which also encompasses numerous state tax charges not being applied, it also has tax cuts for most Territorians, most Australians, and it is part of a simpler and fairer tax system with individual rates being lowered.
The real question should not be whether it’s on a cake or a half cooked chicken or a raw chicken, or carrots or eggs, the real question should be, if it is part of a tax package and you are going to roll it back, and yet everyone still wins, how are you going to do it? If it is stuck at 5%, that’s a huge drop in funding for the states. Where is that going to come from? Individual tax hikes? You haven’t answered this. Territorians want an answer on this.
They know that the GST is part of a tax package. There will be rises and falls. There will be overall winners and losers, but the overall is good for Australia. It picks up the black market, it picks up the hidden economy, and that’s fairer for all Australians.
I have also heard from the schools that there is some concern about extra bookkeeping time for the registrars. The simple answer to that, and we look to New Zealand, is they have given us an indication that they believe it is about an extra 15 minutes per month. It is another column in the book entry.
It’s known that this tax package, of which the GST is part, will be good for the country because it distributes to the states on a fair and equitable basis for the first time, rather than the begging bowl approach. It will be good for Australians. They will have more money in their pockets. They can decide where and when they consume, or not.
Leave granted.
Mr TOYNE: …shows that GST will be payable on proceeds of cake stalls. But even worse, GST will only be payable if the price of a cake sold is more than 50% of the market value of a cake sold outside the school. Does the minister still agree with the Chief Minister and Treasurer that turning mums and dads into accountants and market analysts on behalf of their children’s school represents a great leap forward for Territorians?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, it’s interesting to note that the opposition is attacking the minutiae of a whole tax package. The GST is a component of a whole tax package. And it’s currently set at 10%. What GST actually means is a goods and services tax. It’s on goods and services. Therefore you would expect that it applies to goods and services. And that’s true, it does. But it doesn’t apply to education courses and things like that. Because it’s part of a whole tax package, there are other aspects to it, and that is tax cuts for most Australians of the order of $50 a week.
The GST is currently set at 10%. All of that money comes back to the states and the territories, so if it is part of a tax package, which also encompasses numerous state tax charges not being applied, it also has tax cuts for most Territorians, most Australians, and it is part of a simpler and fairer tax system with individual rates being lowered.
The real question should not be whether it’s on a cake or a half cooked chicken or a raw chicken, or carrots or eggs, the real question should be, if it is part of a tax package and you are going to roll it back, and yet everyone still wins, how are you going to do it? If it is stuck at 5%, that’s a huge drop in funding for the states. Where is that going to come from? Individual tax hikes? You haven’t answered this. Territorians want an answer on this.
They know that the GST is part of a tax package. There will be rises and falls. There will be overall winners and losers, but the overall is good for Australia. It picks up the black market, it picks up the hidden economy, and that’s fairer for all Australians.
I have also heard from the schools that there is some concern about extra bookkeeping time for the registrars. The simple answer to that, and we look to New Zealand, is they have given us an indication that they believe it is about an extra 15 minutes per month. It is another column in the book entry.
It’s known that this tax package, of which the GST is part, will be good for the country because it distributes to the states on a fair and equitable basis for the first time, rather than the begging bowl approach. It will be good for Australians. They will have more money in their pockets. They can decide where and when they consume, or not.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016