Sink or Swim???

Question - why are we all so concerned with the mining resources tax? What impact will this really have on small business? On Investors? Is this new tax really to blame for our dropping Aussie Dollar and Share price as reported or are there other underlying factors?

Did Companies suddenly fold when the GST came in?

Does this mean that Companies may have to change what they are currently doing to survive?

Do you believe the larger Companies will find other ways to make profits?

Does this mean we may see some innovation in different industries?

Does the Hunter have a chance to be known for something other than mining?

Will this be good or bad for Investors, Employees and Business Owners?

Forced change in my opinion does one of two things.

You either sink or swim.

I.e. the Businesses who are planning for change will thrive; the ones who are not concerned with working on their business will go bust. And they will be the noisy ones.

There is no doubting that government policy certainly does impact on business. Sometimes this policy can be good – e.g. the Investment Allowance which boosted asset sales last year or the apprenticeship scheme which helped employ young apprentices.

Then there is the bad policies such as the GST which caused (and still does) so much debate. The debate - GST imposes so much red tape on our small businesses. But is this really bad? Let’s look at this from another perspective. Is having to keep up to date with your bookwork on a quarterly basis a bad thing? Could you actually use this forced policy to your advantage? Of course you can. Instead of just preparing the statement you can use the information to analyse your business quarterly as opposed to yearly when you are forced to do your tax return. What does this do? It allows you to make changes before it’s too late!

So instead of us looking at the proposed new tax as just plain BAD how might your business benefit from this? What opportunities do you have? If mines close will you be able to utilise some of the mining employee’s skills in your business? What if the new tax does not come in at all?

Without time to spend working on your business you could be the one left behind.

Do you want to sink or swim?