The federal budget bottom line will be buoyed by another $100 billion in extra revenue from soaring company and personal income tax collections, completing a $450 billion fiscal turnaround since Treasurer Josh Frydenberg delivered his first COVID-19 budget.
Personal income tax collections alone were tipped to fall by 15 per cent or $117.5 billion between 2020-21 and 2022-23. High commodity prices will push up receipts from the nation’s biggest miners while the underlying strength of the economy, coupled with the property market, will lift revenues from banks. Together, the two sectors account forThe strong jobs market, and a lift in wage forecasts, will push expected income tax collections beyond $260 billion for the first time on record.
“It’s that stronger economy, which enables you to pay down the debt when you combine that with responsible financial management, which our government has demonstrated before the pandemic hit, we had got the budget back into balance,” he said. Shadow treasurer Jim Chalmers said the government had promised more than $70 billion in extra spending since the mid-year update. That includes $38 billion on increasing the size of the defence force plus new road projects in key marginal seats across NSW and Victoria.