The Fiscal Artisan

Australian Federal Budget 2022 The AfterPay Budget  Vote Now Pay Later! Last night, Treasurer Josh Frydenburg delivered the Australian Federal Budget for the next 12 months. But in reality, with the election about to be announced – with an expected poll date of May 14, 2022, (the PM mentioned this date on 2GB this morning)  the budget's main aim is solely to get the Government to that date, and, they hope, elected, despite all polling indications, for a further term of Parliament.  The key elements announced and widely reported relate to what the Government calls 'cost of living' support. With costs rising over the last few years and significantly in the last few months due to rising fuel prices, supply issues and a lack of wage rises for most Australians, a 'correction' in the economy, with an easing of the financial pressure that many have been feeling over the last few years is desperately needed. So what has been offered and forecast?       ...

  The Australian Federal  Budget 2021 Once in a lifetime…   Last night – Tuesday, May 11, 2021, the Treasurer handed down the budget for the 21/22 year. While the government won’t describe it this way, it is clearly an election budget – given the next election is due by Mid May 2022, so unless they go with a February 2022 budget announcement, there is no time for a follow up before we next go to the polls. And in the current environment, and with a Government hooked on announcements and re-announcements, rather than significant new action, there is very little in the budget that was not already announced, or simply a continuation of what was already in place but dressed up as a ‘new initiative’. Many of the forecasts and expectations in the budget are predicated on the assumption that ‘everything will go so very well’ in terms of the vaccine roll-out – despite actual vaccination numbers being less than one-third of the way to what was originally planned. The Federal Gov...

  Din Din Din! Your days as a director are  about to be ‘numbered.’ The Federal Government is working on implementing a Director ID number system, which will allow for the tracing of directors across companies. This system is to be implemented from November 30, 2022, and Directors will be required to apply for a new Directors ID Number (or DIN)   by that date. This system will be managed separately to the Tax File Number (TFN) and Australian Business Number (ABN) system now in operation and will be managed by the Commonwealth Registrar, operating as a separate statutory function of the ATO as part of the Governments “Modernising Business Registers (MBR) program.    In the 2020 federal budget, additional funding was announced to integrate the system with the government’s Modernising Business Registers (MBR) program.This integration will create a super registry by bringing together the Australian Business Register and 31 other registers currently administere...

2020 Vision I can see clearly now the year has gone.  (with apologies to Jimmy Cliff)   Lessons from a year in lockdown As we move into 2021 and the end of summer, let's look back at the realisations that came from the year that was 2020. Yes, the headings are song titles. Let's have some fun with this.  (Artists listed at the end. Can you guess them all without peeking?)     1. If you want it, here it is, come and get it… Twelve months ago, we could see that the virus was going beyond being a 'small problem somewhere overseas' and could disrupt us on more than just a personal scale. But we were being told to 'keep calm and carry on'. What really needed to be said was that we all had to be ready for substantial changes and that everything could and would shift in a moment. While Federal government support was promised and eventually provided, it was always after the event. It was not provided to help businesses and individuals deal with the coming pr...