On Sunday the treasurer told Channel Nine’s Today Show that the Turnbull government had flagged for months that its priority is “delivering tax relief for low to middle-income earners”. Morrison said that low and middle-income earners “should be the first to whom we seek to provide tax relief”, leaving open the possibility that higher income earners will benefit from the income tax cut plan later on. The federal budget is expected to show a dramatic improvement in revenues, with Deloitte Access Economics estimating that the company tax take has risen by $36.2bn since this time last year and income tax is $10.6bn higher. Improved revenues have allowed the Coalition to ditch the planned $8bn Medicare levy increase and promise income tax cuts, but it is still unclear whether it will also bring forward the plan to return to surplus by 2020-21. The treasurer said if the scale of income tax cuts were criticised it would be “very hard to say that the government is irresponsible at the same time”.

Source: The Guardian May 06, 2018 01:17 UTC