SME Business in Queensland Slammed $7 Billion Charges Annually

As the government red tape is increasing more than 30 per cent over the past five years, a total of $7 billion a year in taxes, fees, and other charges are slugging small businesses in Queensland.

Family businesses in Queensland are struggling through 90,000 pages of regulation that govern the sector.

Burgeoning paperwork and some extra cost of taxes are being blamed by a huge chunk of operators as the reasons behind slumped growth and progress. These paper works include mandatory permits and licenses, calculation methods, audits by payroll tax officials, and the fear of what might be brought about by the carbon tax next year.


An operator feels the pressure and has decided to bring his operations to China.

It has been found that 93 percent of businesses think that Queensland has become a “nanny state” by a report from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland. Due to regulation, 70 percent of businesses were prevented from investing.

The state government had increased red tape cost by 6.6 percent. This has driven the overall burden growing to 31.6 percent according to the Blueprint for Fighting Over-Regulation Report.

To add to this, the 2011 National CEO Survey by the Australian Industry Group revealed that it is the Queensland businesses that faced the largest direct cost of compliance that averages 6.5 percent in total expenses.

"During a period when there has been concerted effort to reduce the regulatory burden on business and claims by government of regulatory burden targets being achieved, the compliance costs have increased, not decreased. These costs are expected to further increase in the next three years," said the AiGroup.

Queensland has lost its way and that its government is “all talk, no action” on the matter of cost reduction as stated by CCIQ President, David Goodwin.

"We've gone from being the leader to being the cellar dweller from being low cost and low regulation to now being the highest regulated and no longer the lowest cost. We need the Premier to actually find her voice and stand up for Queensland business," he said.

-----
Shoebooks is a premium provider of Australian accounting software for SME businesses. Check out Shoebooks small accounting software services and experience the advantages of our bookkeeping online software for your business. Shoebooks is located at Unit 12, 118 Church Street, Hawthorn Victoria 3122, Australia. Call Shoebooks at +613-9818-1515 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              +613-9818-1515      end_of_the_skype_highlighting

Survey Indicates Good Times Ahead for Businesses

Tough weather and economic conditions may have hit Queensland earlier this year, but a recent survey says Queensland’s businesses remain upbeat.

Although Queensland was found to be below the national average in terms of “happiness”, its outlook is positive. This was according to Westpac’s Local Business Sentiment Survey.

“What we found interesting was that even though Queensland is doing it especially tough it registered a happiness score of 58, just under the national average,” said Westpac General Manager SME Segment Sian Lewis. “This shows a particular resilience in the Queensland business community – I would have expected them to be a little more off the pace,” he added.

Queensland, Tasmania, and the Northern Territory all ranked under the national level but small businesses in Victoria, Western Australia, and the ACT ranked more than 60 in the “happiness index” of businesses in Australia.

Another result from the survey was that 2 out of 3 Australian businesses indicated that “business is good” and that 57 per cent of those surveyed say that a stronger performance may be expected in the next six months.

While the biggest headaches of small businesses are managing business costs, driving sales, and employee performance, the positive factors included positive customer relationships, meeting personal goals, and strong operational performance.

Local business forecasts remain positive even with the recent financial and natural disasters that hit Australia.

Profit targets are expected to be met by more than half of all small businesses in Australia and 25 per cent thought their businesses were likely to do better than expected.

There were 2500 answers from respondents coming from Westpac’s business customers that were collated for the survey.

News Source: Queensland Business Review »