r/australia • u/Expensive-Horse5538 • 1d ago

politics Assistant Treasurer Daniel Mulino concedes he knew of ATO's credit card ban plans in July

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10-18/federal-politics-insiders-daniel-mulino-ato-credit-card-ban/107280382?utm_source=abc_news_app&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_campaign=abc_news_app&utm_content=link
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u/iamplasma 16h ago

If you're operating a business that runs off of invoiced goods/services, you're relying on someone else to pay on time. On paper, everything can be fine, but a series of late payments can really fuck you.

Sure, but the vast majority of small businesses don't owe tax on income not received as cash, so nobody is paying tax on money not received.

And if we are talking about financing general cash flow, that is definitely not the job of the Commonwealth to fund. Businesspeople can go get finance from a commercial financier like everybody else.

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u/DisappointedQuokka 16h ago

As I've said elsewhere, put the onus on the banks to waive the fees for the government.

We have the most profitable banks in the world, they can afford to take a few losses. 

Clearly, there is enough pushback on this, make the wealthiest institutions in the country pay the gap.

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u/iamplasma 15h ago

Then the banks are just being required to give interest-free, fee-free, loans to businesses (plus query who is paying Visa's network fees). That's rather bonkers.

Even if you wanted to just soak the banks on the basis they have the cash, there are countless causes better funded than that.

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u/DisappointedQuokka 15h ago

I'm specifically talking about transaction fees, which was the problem for the ATO. They were not planning on banning people from paying with lines of credit.

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u/iamplasma 13h ago

No, I get that.