Federal Budget – Perspective

The Federal Treasurer, Dr Jim Chalmers, handed down the 2024–25 Federal Budget at 7:30 pm (AEST) on 14 May 2024.

Described as a “responsible Budget that helps people under pressure today” , the Treasurer has forecast a second consecutive surplus of $9.3 billion. The main priorities of the government, as reflected in the Budget, are helping with the cost of living, building more housing, investing in skills and education, strengthening Medicare and responsible economic management to help fight inflation.

The key tax measures announced in the Budget include extending the $20,000 instant asset write-off for eligible businesses by 12 months until 30 June 2025, introducing tax incentives for hydrogen production and critical minerals production, strengthening foreign resident CGT rules and penalising multinationals that seek to avoid paying Australian royalty withholding tax. The Budget also includes various amendments to previously announced measures, as well as a number of income tax measures that have already been enacted prior to the Budget announcement, including:

• the revised stage 3 personal income tax cuts (enacted by the Treasury Laws Amendment (Cost of Living Tax Cuts) Act 2024 (Act No 3 of 2024))
• Medicare levy and surcharge threshold changes (enacted by the Treasury Laws Amendment (Cost of Living—Medicare Levy) Act 2024 (Act No 4 of 2024)), and
• a specific exemption for Australian plantation forestry entities from the new earnings-based rules introduced as part of thin capitalisation reforms (enacted by the Treasury Laws Amendment (Making Multinationals Pay Their Fair Share—Integrity and Transparency) Act 2024 (Act No 23 of 2024)).

The government anticipates that the tax measures put forward will collectively improve the Budget position by $3.1 billion over a 5-year period to 2027–28.

The full Budget papers are available at www.budget.gov.au and the Treasury ministers’ media releases are available at ministers.treasury.gov.au.

The tax, superannuation and social security highlights are set out in our full report.