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Business accountants in Sydney need to consider new Medicare levy

The Federal Government has this week announced that it will introduce into parliament an increase in the standard Medicare Levy from 1.5% to 2% of taxable income for those taxpayers that are already paying the Medicare Levy. This follows on from the budget shock that the Gillard Government is expecting a $12 billion dollar deficit in the upcoming May budget. As tax accountants in Surry Hills we thought we should share this and the below information.

All the anticipated $3.2 billion in extra revenue is being directly allocated to partly fund the new National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), where the other $9 billion needed to fund the scheme will come from is yet to be announced, or determined. 

From a practical point of view, the increase in rate of Medicare Levy does not change any of the Medicare levy exemptions In any way, so for low income earners currently not paying the Medicare Levy and people on pensions, there will be no impact on their household budget. 

Leader of the opposition Mr Abbot seems to have indicated that a Liberal/National government will support this new policy, so a change in Government will make no difference to the extra $350.00 per year that the average taxpayer will be paying to support the NDIS.

For small business owners, keep in touch with your accounting software provider, be that MYOB, Xero or any of the other accounting software suppliers to see if any upgrades need to be done in order to provide for new tax tables to account for the calculations, anyone performing manual calculations will need to make sure they download the latest tax tables from the ATO website to ensure staff wages are being correctly taxed. As Xero accountants please don’t hesitate to contact us.

For more information on this issue contact us your business accountants in Surry Hills.

 
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