Australian Federal Budget 2016: What It Means For Your Family

Who doesn’t love Federal Budget night? Turns out everyone else in the Stay At Home Mum office, that’s who.

So I volunteered to throw myself on the grenade of watching Treasurer Scott Morrison deliver his 2016 Budget speech last night to bring the highlights, and lowlights, to you, our dear readers. These are the things in this year’s Budget that will affect families.

It’s important to note, though, that none of these proposals are actually law yet and might not ever become law, because we look to be heading towards a July 2 election and there is insufficient time to have all aspects of the Budget passed by Parliament in the sitting days that are left in this term of government. Some Budget measures from two years ago still haven’t seen the light of day as they haven’t been able to get through parliament.

Tax cuts if you earn over $80K

If you earn between $80,000 to $87,000 you won’t be in the middle tax bracket any more and will stay on the 32.5 per cent tax rate until you hit $87,000 when you’ll be taxed at 37 per cent for every dollar you earn over that amount.

Superannuation for women

When women take time out of the workforce to have children, they often struggle when it comes to saving for retirement. The government will help them build up their super by refunding any tax paid on super contributions while they are on a low income, and letting them bump up their super in later years when they start earning higher wages again.

Women who earn less than $37,000 will get up to $500 tax refunded and will be able to roll over their super balances for five years when they put less than $25,000 a year into super.

Childcare

Bad news for working parents – a new Child Care Subsidy that was announced in last year’s Budget now won’t start until July 1 2018. This move would have gotten rid of the $7500 rebate cap for families earning less than $185,000 from July 2017, increasing the cap to $10,000 per child,  but now they will have to wait an extra year to get this relief.

However the rest of the government’s child care package will be implemented, including extending a Nanny Pilot Program to June 30 2018 to help families who have difficulty accessing mainstream childcare.

An Inclusion Support Program to provide extra care for vulnerable children will commence on July 1 2016.

Paid Parental Leave

Changes to paid parental leave that have been shelved for the time being because they couldn’t pass through parliament, are still on the agenda. This is a move to prevent so-called “double dipping” for around 80,000 families who access their employer’s paid parental leave scheme as well as the one offered by the government.

More budget hoo-haa on the next page…