Defining a Small Business Under the Australian Tax Code: Small Business Entities

Abstract

This paper examines the Small Business Entities (SBE) tax concessions that replaced the former Simplified Tax System (STS) concessions on 1 July 2007. Given that the former STS concessions have been subject to much criticism by commentators, professional and government bodies this paper firstly tracks the origins of the STS concessions in the 1999 Review of Business Taxation’s (herein after called the ‘Review’) report and the subsequent legislative fixes up to 30 June 2007. The paper then examines the SBE concessions and finds that the new SBE framework provides a more flexible framework for small business and better integrates other small business taxation concessions. However, the SBE regime retains many of the features of the former STS and thus is open to the same criticisms.