Many were underwhelmed by Treasurer Scott Morrison’s announcements. The tax cuts were too small and a long way off – seven years to get the full benefits! Some ten million Australians will get $530 a year – the equivalent of a couple of Flat Whites a week!
The Australia Institute tweeted someone on $40,000 will get $455 a year, while someone on $200,000 receives $7225. Those on $200,000 earn five times as much as those on $40,000 but get 16 times more in tax cuts.
If you want to find out what most Aussies thought of a $10 tax cut, see #keepmytendollars.
Here are some pointers you may have missed.
1. The Budget anticipates wage growth of 3.25%. An improvement in wage growth is also a key factor in the outlook for the broader economy given that domestic consumption comprises around 60% of GDP. But many economic pundits think the prediction is wildly optimistic, meaning growth and cuts just won’t happen.
2. The Treasurer’s commitment to legislating a Consumer Data Right that will give Australians greater control over their own data signals the start of a massive campaign to persuade us to switch financial services. An Open Banking framework should mean a lot of competition in the financial services space, and consumers should be the winners. We’ll see the biggest benefit when this framework includes lending products such as mortgages and credit cards, as this is the area where consumers stand to save the most by switching. Energy is another area, with comparisons improvements expected to save consumers $400 a day by 2020.
3. But the “lazy tax” is the biggest hurdle. What’s the price of apathy? Well, it could be as much as $100,000! The CEO of Australia’s open online mortgage and loans market HashChing, Mandeep Sodhi, is worried. “We know that one of the biggest barriers when it comes switching to another home loan provider is apathy. Even if the borrower stands to save more than a hundred thousand dollars over the life of their home loan by switching to another lender (the average saving for HashChing customers refinancing is $102,800), having to go to the hassle of transferring all of their information over to another financial institution places it firmly in the “too hard basket”.
4. Up to 10 million Australians will benefit from tax changes over seven years. But don’t cheer just yet. It means just $530 annually if you earn up to $90,000. From 1 July 2018 the threshold to pay 37% tax rate will rise from $87,000 to $90,000. This will be raised again to $120,000 in 2022-23.