Small business tax cut to be restricted to companies with $2 million turnover; MYOB raises $833 million in biggest float of the year: Midday Roundup

Just one day after news reports suggested the federal government’s slated 1.5% cut to the company tax rate would apply to the first $5 million in profit made by small business, a contradictory report from Fairfax claims the budget measure will be restricted to companies with $2 million in annual turnover.

According to the Fairfax report, the lower threshold would allow the government to keep the cost of its small business package “under control”.

The report also states key decision makers in the government have decided to keep the tax cut at 1.5%, with an accelerated depreciation program that would also benefit small businesses that are not incorporated still under “active consideration”.

“They are still looking at having an incentive for all small businesses regardless of how they are structured,” a source told Fairfax.

MYOB raises $833 million in biggest float of the year

Accounting software company MYOB has raised $833 million in what is Australia’s biggest listing of 2015 to date. 

More than 220 million shares were sold at $3.65 each.

A source told Reuters the raise was at the upper end of what the company had hoped to get from the initial public offering.

MYOB chief executive Tim Reed said listing on the ASX on Monday will be a “proud day” for the company.

“In the past six years as a private company, we’ve transformed MYOB into a wonderfully innovative business that continues to focus on the needs and challenges of SMEs,” Reed said.

“We will welcome our new investors to participate with us in our growth as more and more small businesses head to the cloud to manage their accounts.”

Shares flat on open

Aussie shares have had a flat start to the day off the back of sluggish results from Wall Street.

Tristan K’Nell, head of trading at Quay Equities, said in a statement the market was struggling to break in either direction.

“Considering the market talk all about the RBA on Tuesday, it was no surprise to see the market trade in this fashion today,” K’Nell said.

“Market Turnover into lunch was $1.540 billion. I have noticed some big bids on the market for Westpac this morning [so] we may see some action in the banks this afternoon ahead of two important events. Westpac kick[s] off reporting season on Monday [and] secondly we have the RBA [interest rate decision] on Tuesday, which is still very much 50/50 with the volatility in the Australian dollar this week only continuing to make this Tuesday one of the most anticipated decisions of recent times.”

The S&P/ASX 200 benchmark was up 9.8 points to 5799.8 points at 11:49am AEST. On Thursday, the Dow Jones closed 195.01 points lower, down 1.08% to 17,840.52.