They’re off and running in SA
SOUTH Australian Opposition Leader Steven Marshall pledged to abolish payroll tax for small businesses, in a major jobs salvo fired at his state election campaign launch yesterday.
With the election on March 17, Mr Marshall’s centrepiece announcement would exempt all businesses with a wage bill of $1.5 million or less from paying payroll tax – a shift he said would be a boon for jobs.
Currently, payroll tax kicks in for businesses when they have a total wage bill of $600,000. They are then required to pay a 2.5 per cent tax.
When an employer’s wage bill is higher than $1.5 million, the state tax rate jumps to 4.95 per cent.
“South Australia is a great state but we are being let down by an arrogant and dysfunctional Labor government,” Mr Marshall said.
“We must immediately address the economic problems that 16 years of Labor government has delivered.”
Mr Marshall said his promise would cost $44.5 million per year.
Business leaders have long complained payroll tax stops them from adding new workers.
Premier Jay Weatherill later said his priority was “putting money in the pockets of householders”, while the Liberals wanted to put money “in the pockets of business”.
“Our approach is to invest in partnership with businesses to create jobs, rather than throw money at them and hope,” he said.