Snippets - Budget 2012What else did the budget hold for business? |
We summarise below what else was in the Budget that may be of interest to business.
| Other Budget Announcements | |
| Additional Inland Revenue audit activity |
An extra $78.4 million over the next four years for Inland Revenue, to bolster tax compliance activities. |
| R&D | No R&D tax credit regime, but $250 million of new operating funding and $76.1 million in capital funding over four years for science, innovation and research. |
| Student loans | Increasing the student loan repayment rate from 10%to 12%, saving $184.2 million over the next four years, and repealing the voluntary repayment scheme (saving $43.5 million over four years). The Government will also remove eligibility for student allowances for postgraduate study (saving $12.7 million over four years), and broaden the definition of income for student loan repayment purposes to make this in line with what is “income” for working for families purposes. |
| Tobacco excise tax | Increasing tobacco excise by 10% a year on 1 January in each of the next four years ($528 million over four years). This will increase the price of an average pack of 20 cigarettes to more than $20 by 2016. |
| KiwiSaver | The Government is deferring proceeding with KiwiSaver auto enrolment in 2014-15, but has said it will still go ahead with this when it has sufficient surpluses to meet the forecast cost (up to $514 million over four years). |
| Future Investment Fund | The Future Investment Fund will invest the $5 billion to $7 billion of proceeds from the partial share sales of four SOEs and Air New Zealand. Budget 2012 allocates $559 million of this. |
