Businesses pay double the tax they were when labor started

Quotes and comments supplied by Executive Director Bill Lang

Small Business Australia executive director Bill Lang said cost pressures on Victorian businesses were pushing many to the brink of breaking. Mr Lang said latest data showed more than half reported being unable to operate at a profit post Covid.

"What these small business families need is a supportive Victorian government working to keep the costs of running a business down, not the constant pushing the cost of doing business up," he said.

"Payroll tax is a tax on employment, which coupled with mandated increases in wages, penalty rates, an inflexible employment market, discourages small and medium business owners from employing staff and should be abolished or at the least greatly reduced.

"For too long small businesses have been treated as nothing more than an ATM by government at all levels, especially so in Victoria - the highest taxing state in Australia, a state with the highest energy costs and the most difficult place to do business of any state in Australia."