Australians wanting to get their $1,080 tax cut are being urged to submit their tax return by Friday to get a refund in their bank account from next week.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s tax cuts package is set to pass the Senate on Thursday which will see Australians earning $48,000 to $90,000 get the most cash back.
Crossbench senators Jacqui Lambie, Rex Patrick and Stirling Griff have agreed to pass the government’s $158billion tax cuts package announced in the pre-election April Budget.
Their Senate votes are set to benefit 10million Australian workers, including 4.5million low and middle-income earners who will get the full $1,080 in relief.
Australians wanting to get their $1,080 tax cut are being urged to submit their tax return by the end of this week to get a refund in their bank account
Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie (pictured) agreed to pass the government’s $158billion tax cuts package announced in the pre-election April Budget
The Australian Taxation Office said that it aimed to process online tax returns within two weeks or less.
Tax accountants H&R Block urged Australians to lodge their returns as soon as possible, with the tax office expected to begin processing returns in mid-July.
‘To get the tax offset you have to lodge a tax return and the earlier you lodge, the earlier you’ll get the tax offset,’ the group’s director of tax communications Mark Chapman told Daily Mail Australia on Thursday.
‘So, lodging your tax return today should ensure that you get the full offset that you’re entitled to – possibly up to $1,080, depending on your income – added to your refund payment.’
Senator Lambie, a Tasmanian, agreed to the back the tax cuts plan in full following negotiations the government’s Senate leader, Finance Minister Mathias Cormann on Wednesday afternoon.
Senator Lambie wanted the commonwealth to write off Tasmania’s $157million housing commission debt, incurred between the 1950s and the 1980s.
‘I’m going to go in hard guys, I want that public housing debt removed,’ she said ahead of the negotiations on Wednesday.
‘People in Tassie are doing it tough and for them, $1,000 in their back pocket now will give them some immediate relief.’
The government courted crossbench senators because the Labor Opposition is opposed to stage three of the package, which proposes from July 2024 to slash Australia’s tax brackets from five to four for the first time since 1984.
The Coalition also wants to abolish the 37 per cent tax bracket and replace it with a 30 per cent rate, so someone earning $200,000 a year pays the same tax rate as a worker on $45,000 a year.
While Senator Lambie is committed to passing the tax cuts package, on Thursday morning she expressed misgivings about stage three, which will cost the Budget $95billion during a time when the economy is growing at the slowest pace since the global financial crisis.
‘I still have concerns about stage three, there’s no doubt about that,’ she told reporters.
‘That’s five or six years away. We have another election.
‘I’m not an economist but I’m not sure we’re heading in the right direction and I’m sure from public perception and whatever else when it gets to that, if we just don’t have the money to do that, that deal will have to go wayside.’
Although the government is aiming to get the tax cuts passed this week, Senator Patrick told Australian Associated Press he wasn’t bothered if it took longer because ‘people will still get their tax cheques’.
Labor has been hoping it could convince crossbenchers to support amendments so the second stage can happen sooner and the third stage be voted on later.
It argued the third stage – set for 2024/25 – was too far off for the Parliament to decide on now.
The federal government has been fighting for support to get its $158 billion tax package over the line, which would give low and middle-income earners up to $1080 when they lodge their tax returns this year.
The first stage of the plan will deliver up to $1,080 to low and middle-income earners when they lodge their tax returns in coming months.
The second stage would top up a low-income tax offset, meaning people earning up to $45,000 – instead of $41,000 – would have a 19 per cent tax rate.
The final stage would flatten the tax rate from 32.5 per cent to 30 per cent for people earning between $45,000 and $200,000 from mid-2024.
The $158 billion package passed the lower house on Tuesday night after about three hours of debate, with Labor failing to secure an amendment to bring forward the second stage of the package from 2022 to 2019.