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SMEs pleased with budget, software giant finds

Tax

Despite lacking confidence before the federal budget was released last week, majority of SMEs are now largely comfortable with the measures included in the budget according to the latest report from MYOB.

By Lara Bullock 8 minute read

Yesterday MYOB released its latest SME Snapshot, revealing details of SMEs’ response to the budget.

Thirty-four per cent of SME respondents felt the federal budget was more positive than negative, while a further 34 per cent believed the federal budget would have no impact on their business.

Only 16 per cent of SMEs that responded to the survey rated the federal budget negatively, despite 43 per cent not feeling confident the budget would deliver a positive outcome for them prior to its release.

The specific measure that SMEs felt most positively about were the $20,000 instant tax write-off, with 60 per cent of SMEs rating that as having the most impact.

“Ahead of the budget, we knew that 60 per cent of small business owners considered the instant tax write-off to be the most pressing need,” said Tim Reed, CEO of MYOB.

“The extension has created a very positive sentiment around the budget among the SME community.”

Further to this, 49 per cent of respondents were pleased with the company tax rate reduction and 29 per cent were pleased with the boost to infrastructure spending.

“Considering that ahead of the budget, 43 per cent of small business owners weren’t confident it would deliver a positive outcome, it appears that policies like the tax write-off extension and company tax cuts have turned this sentiment around,” said Mr. Reed.

One measure that seems to have SMEs undecided is the change to 457 visas, with 12 per cent believing they will have a negative impact and only five per cent feeling they will have a positive impact.

“The visa changes may cause issues for some of our small businesses, particularly for those looking for manual workers in more rural areas where potential hires are much smaller,” Mr Reed said.

Lara Bullock

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