Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, needs to front up like a shop owner when times are tough, listen to small business and overturn his ATO and their assault on small business cash flow and credit card payment ban.
Jim Chalmers has spent his week on a trip of desperation to convince Japanese investors he isn't a sovereign risk.
With the Albanese government passing $1 trillion in public debt, projected deficits for the next 40 years, and his taxaholism because he can't kick his inflation addiction, investors are losing confidence.
If you need to convince investors you're not a sovereign risk, then chances are you are a sovereign risk.
While his back has been turned, an audition has broken out to replace him as Treasurer between Clare O'Neil and Andrew Charlton.
Other colleagues are freelancing and condemning the Treasurer's surcharge ban that is smashing small business.
Small businesses deserve better than 8 hours' notice, and a circus of ministers fumbling their lines and making up policy on the run.
Housing Minister Clare O'Neil, in a rare moment of reason, said, "the government does have some real concerns about what the ATO is proposing to do here… Cash flow is the biggest thing that's often of concern for small businesses, and using credit cards to pay a tax bill is a way that a lot of people are just managing that issue."
And the Small Business Minister Anne Aly said, "I've spoken to small businesses, and they were rightly shocked by this decision. I do think they should have been consulted."
The Albanese government's war on small business is only accelerating with this decision. It started with a Budget that hit small and family businesses with higher capital gains tax on early-stage start-ups and minimum taxes on trusts. Those taxes were so poorly thought through that the government has already been shamed into four backflips, and it still doesn't know how to implement them. Then payday super turned a quarterly bill into a monthly or fortnightly one. Then the surcharge ban told every cafe, tradie and travel agent to absorb the cost of card fees. Now the ATO has refused to absorb the same cost itself and pulled card payments for tax bills altogether.
There is one rule for Canberra and another rule for the corner store in a community. The double standard and hypocrisy is breathtaking.
Many small businesses put their BAS or tax bill on a card to manage cash flow and make payroll. Now, just before Christmas, they're being told to find tens of thousands of dollars at a moment's notice. Cash flow is king, and this government keeps crunching it, from payday super to the surcharge ban and now this.
The government's answer is to tell small businesses to sign up for a payment plan with the taxman. Small businesses don't need a plan from the ATO. They need a government that listens before it acts. That's why the Coalition will deliver a Small Business Act, with a right to be heard, so Canberra has to consult small business before it pulls the rug out from under them.
Jim Chalmers needs to front up, show some leadership and overturn the ATO's credit card ban.
