Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he told business lobby chief Andrew McKellar he would get the ATO credit card ban resolved, The Guardian reported, speaking at an ACCI dinner where he described receiving a text from McKellar and having the matter sorted by the following morning. Albanese said his response was that the matter was in hand, that he agreed with what was being said, and that he would get it done.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers said he also engaged with ACCI and that his office had been in contact with the chamber, including a meeting in recent weeks. Chalmers said he and assistant treasurer Andrew Mulino then took a proposal to ministerial colleagues. Albanese said in question time that the expenditure review committee was convened and that the decision was agreed unanimously across government leadership.
The ATO ban followed a Reserve Bank decision banning surcharges, which came into effect on 1 October, and the ATO said it did not want to absorb the wholesale costs of card processing that it could no longer pass on. The ATO, under commissioner Rob Heferen, announced a halt to credit card payments for tax debts from 1 December, saying those costs, estimated at almost $200m a year, could not legally be charged back to card users.
Chalmers announced new funding to delay the ban, pushing the start date back from 1 December to the start of July to allow businesses more adjustment time. Estimates put the share of small businesses paying tax bills by credit card at around 5%.
Chalmers denied that Albanese acted independently of him, saying the prime minister and he held the same view that a longer transition period was needed to allow the ATO time to get the matter right. Albanese said the premise of any suggestion he overruled Chalmers was completely wrong, pointing to joint discussions and a unanimous expenditure review committee decision.
Small businesses currently using credit cards to pay tax bills will be able to continue doing so until the start of July, giving them more time to find alternative payment arrangements.
Reporting: The Guardian, The Nightly, The Conversation
Written by Pick & Scroll News from the reporting and documents linked above.
