Cash payments of more than $10,000 have been banned by the Federal Government to tackle tax evasion, terrorists and organised crime.
Payments of more than $10,000 for goods or services will have to be made with a cheque or through an electronic payment system from July 1 2019.
Treasurer Scott Morrison announced the plan in his 2018/2019 budget speech on Tuesday night.
Cash payments of more than $10,000 have been banned by the Federal Government to tackle tax evasion, terrorists and organised crime
‘This will be bad news for criminal gangs, terrorists and those who are just trying to cheat on their tax or get a discount for letting someone else cheat on their tax,’ he said.
‘It’s not clever. It’s not OK. It’s a crime.’
The government’s Black Economy Taskforce has also identified contractors in the trucking, security and computer system design industries as the most likely to dodge their tax obligations, and businesses will be required to report their payments to such contractors from July 2019.’
The reporting system is already used in the building and construction industry, and from July 2018 will apply to the cleaning and courier industries.
The federal government is also providing $319 million to the Australian Taxation Office over the next four years for it to bring in new strategies to fight the black economy.
This includes increased audits and a hotline for the public to report cases illegal activity.
The reaction was not all positive on social media, with one person commenting people ‘don’t trust banks’.
‘Don’t know how I feel about that,’ he said.
‘Some people just really don’t trust banks. Doesn’t mean they’re all laundering money.’
Another person said: ‘Roosters crisis ahead,’ referring to mass cash payments made to football players.