Hawkesbury’s small business owners look to be the big winners from last night’s Federal Budget, while cigarette smokers are set to remain losers.
While there are tax cuts on offer for businesses, smokers will be again be burning more dollars on tax hikes.
Also announced in last night’s budget by Federal Treasurer Scott Morrison was nearly $3 billion in national infrastructure funding.
The budget allocated $2.9 billion for “significant new investments in infrastructure across Australia”.
The Hawkesbury may be eligible for some of this money from programs which already operate.
Hawkesbury small business owners will pocket more money thanks to a tax cut.
The taxation rate for small businesses has been lowered to 27.5 per cent. To qualify for the break, the annual turnover of the business must not exceed $10 million, up from $2 million.
Current or prospective Hawkesbury university students might have a nervous wait. The government announced a saving of nearly $2 billion from Higher Education Reform, despite the fact when it tried to pass the measure through the senate it was blocked.
Smokers will have to pay more for cigarettes every year from 2017 until 2020, with the government set to raise taxes on tobacco by 12.5 per cent every year, while bringing down the number of duty free cigarettes permissible from 50 to 25 from July 1, 2017.
Hawkesbury’s Defence Force personnel who are deployed on Operation PALATE II in Afghanistan will not pay income tax this year.