Carbon Tax Impacts - What the accountants are worried about
According to the results of a survey of accountants, the Australian small business owners’ financial performance will be negatively impacted by the introduction of a carbon tax.

Data from a survey conducted by the Institute of Public Accountants (IPA) shows that 70 percent of the respondents are worried about the financial performance of their small business clients as they believe that their small business would be negatively affected while 66 percent believe that enough consideration about how the tax will impact SMBs have been provided.

IPA chief executive, Andrew Conway, commented on the survey that IPA members were trusted advisers to the Australian small business community. Furthermore, he believed that the perceived bleak outlook for the small and medium business sector over the next 12 months is very alarming for them.

Moreover, Conway said that regardless of the Government statement, that only top polluters will be impacted with the introduction of the carbon tax, it seems that the government has not considered the interests of small businesses.

According to the IPA survey, data shows that 66 per cent of respondents believed that not enough consideration have been given to how the carbon tax would impact small business, while 67 per cent believed that insufficient information have been provided to small business over how the carbon tax might affect them.

The IPA survey comes just days after the Australian Retailers Association released its carbon tax survey. The ARA survey shows that 83 percent of retailers believe that the carbon tax will impact the consumers in a way that they will spend less while 85 percent believed that profitability will be negatively impacted.

High Public Opposition

The carbon tax issue shows a high public opposition and is growing with 60 percent of voters – up 3 percent since last month – against the tax. The figure is slightly under Americans’ disapproval of a carbon tax that was at 70 percent last year.

Likewise, Australia’s mining, energy, agriculture and food industry groups are worried about an expected increase in their expenditures.



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