It’s a grim time for ordinary workers. Tax cuts for high income earners are still in the pipeline but today the fuel excise cuts end, and that’s on top of vanishing (LAMITO) tax breaks for low income workers.
Employers have probably decided by now whether to fork out for the rise in super to 10.5%, or take the super increase out of wages (see story below).
It was missed by the media in the Coalition’s March Budget but most Australian workers are probably $50 a week worse off from July as the LAMITO tax offset was removed. That’s Low And Middle Income Tax Offset. Add to that the cost of living pressures from the removal of the temporary cut to petrol excise which cuts in this week. Then there’s the big one: rising interest rates.
At the time (see story below) MWM predicted it would get grim for wage earners because employers would likely not pass on the rise in super to 10.5%.
Sadly, our predictions are looking solid after three months. Unfortunately, we predicted recession a couple of months later and that too – given plunging asset prices and global turmoil – is now looking more likely as well.
(Yet the Stage 3 tax cuts which will deliver high income earners another 9k or so in the kick are still to be introduced.)
Frydenberg hides $30 a week tax increase for most Australians
Michael West established Michael West Media in 2016 to focus on journalism of high public interest, particularly the rising power of corporations over democracy. West was formerly a journalist and editor with Fairfax newspapers, a columnist for News Corp and even, once, a stockbroker.