A budget wish list

The SmartCompany team is gearing up for another big Federal budget week, with reporter Patrick Stafford and I set to jet off to Canberra on Tuesday morning for the big lock up.

It’s a little hard at this stage to know what to expect.

Clearly we’ve been softened up for a budget that will contain plenty of cuts and little in the way of new spending initiatives, but exactly what will be in there for the SME community is harder to determine.

We know there’s likely to be cuts to tax concessions around company cars and probably some changes to penalties for excess super contributions.

But after that it gets a little tougher to predict. Our fear is that there will be a lot of tinkering and very little in the way of big action.

With this in mind, here’s a quick wish list we’ve compiled of things we’d like to see:

• Support for exporters. Given where the Australian dollar is, the Government must restore its Export Market Development Grant to its full level of funding.

• A final fix for the R&D tax credit/concession. It’s two years since Innovation Minster Kim Carr decided to change the Government’s big scheme but he has been unable to get it through Parliament, creating uncertainty. This needs to be fixed and quickly.

• Employee share schemes. It’s also two years since the Government changed the rules around employee share schemes and it’s been a disaster – small, high-growth companies have essentially been prevented from using options as a way to entice staff. Another area that needs to be fixed.

• Tax reform. The Henry Review suggested the corporate tax rate should be slashed to 25%, but the Government is only going to 29%. Let’s see a commitment to moving to Henry’s target.

• Innovation funding. An area where more action is always welcome, particularly in the current environment where our economy is being increasingly reliant on mining. When the resources boom flags, we need to have an environment where fast-growth companies are receiving strong support.

• Payroll tax. Hey, we know it’s a state government issue, but if the Government wanted to win over voters for eternity there would be no better way than to try and drive action in this area.

What else would you like to see? Let us know in the comments below and stay tuned for our full budget coverage next week. We’ll have a special preview on Tuesday and our special budget night bulletin on Tuesday evening.