We know that the budget is announced every year in May but in spite of all the media coverage, no one seems to take the time to simplify it and explain what it all means. At Aureus Financial we pride ourselves on following the methodology of ‘simple, sustainable, scaleable’ so we want to simplify this years budget for you.

Some of the key outcomes were as follows;

• Removal of child care subsidy cap from 2/7/2018 for families earning less than $187,000
• Substantial increase in hospital funding to $24.5b over the next 10 years
• Tax relief for low income earners below $37,000 will get $200 back in their return and below $90,000 will get $530
• Aim to flatten tax rates meaning that 94% of Aussies will pay no more than 32.5% tax on average
• $1b added to the urban congestion fund to help improve roads and infrastructure
• $500m invested to protect the Great Barrier Reef
• Aim to reduce corporate tax rate to 25% is a big win for small business
• Plan to implement country wide initiative to outlaw cash payments for any goods and services above $10,000 to minimize tax avoidance
• 2 year plan to get the budget back to surplus

Overall it seems to be a good year for the budget with no clear losers as a result of the planned initiatives. From our perspective, we believe that given some harsh changes in previous years, the coalition is aiming to appease voters whilst trying to steer our economy in the right direction.

As a wealth accumulator or business owner, the budget provides many long term benefits and shows that the government is backing SMEs to continue to grow and scale their business whilst closing the loop holes for those doing the wrong thing.

We hope this summary as valuable and if you have any questions about the budget or how it affects you, please let us know.