Ease the squeeze on
small hospitality businesses

 

Small restaurants and cafes are Doing It Tough…

“Save Your Local” is a campaign by the Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance to defend small hospitality businesses from aggressive ATO debt collection.

The COVID pandemic and the government’s response has led to a massive decrease in revenue in the hospitality industry. For most businesses, this has meant running at a loss for the last 15 months. Given the lack of money, it has simply not been possible for many struggling small businesses to pay their GST and PAYG(w) tax bills.

Policies such as JobKeeper were designed to support businesses through these difficult times, but they have only been partially successful, leaving many businesses still significantly out of pocket.

In the face of these unprecedented business challenges, small hospitality businesses across the country have been targeted by an ATO campaign demanding quick repayment of back taxes. Many cannot pay, and the consequence will be business closures, bankruptcies, and the personal fallout that comes from economic ruin.

The Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance propose the following immediate action:

  • Legal support in helping to deal with the ATO, and delay payments.

  • Build a network of affected businesses to share information and coordinate action.

  • Raise awareness of this issue in the public and among political decision makers.

  • Collect petition signatures in support of the hospitality sector against the ATO.

Our policy goals:

Cancel the GST debt for affected businesses.

Allow for the PAYG back-taxes to be paid through a HECS style system, where affected business will pay an additional 10 percentage points company tax on their profits until they have cleared their debt.

Looking forward, businesses that suffer further economic damage from government regulations should receive compensation for the damage from those regulations. This idea is known as “regulatory compensation” and it has the dual benefits of being fair to people

If you run an impacted small business and would like to tell us your story (we can keep your name out of it) please drop us a message.

To show your support for your local cafes and restaurants and stay informed on the progress of the campaign, sign up here: