Under an initiative announced recently by the Minister for Regional Services, Territories and Local Government, Senator Ian Macdonald, up to $2.51 million will be provided in 1999 – 00 under the Local Government Incentive Programme to assist councils prepare for the introduction of the GST.
GST assistance will comprise two components:
€ a notional allocation to the State and Northern Territory Local Government Associations; and
€ a notional allocation to the States and the Northern Territory based on the number of councils.
The council allocations will be administered through the Associations to enable strategic use of the available funds.
Details of the funding allocations by State and the Northern Territory are:
|
State |
Association |
Notional |
Total |
|
NSW VIC QLD WA SA TAS NT Total |
266,000 202,000 223,000 118,000 100,000 67,000 74,000 1,050,000 |
360,000 158,000 312,000 284,000 148,000 58,000 140,000 1,460,000 |
626,000 360,000 535,000 402,000 248,000 125,000 214,000 2,510,000 |
The types of activities the Commonwealth is prepared to fund include training for Local Government elected representatives and staff, software upgrades, specialist accounting and legal advice and local impact analysis.
Senator Macdonald emphasised that the Associations must pay attention to the special needs of councils in regional and remote Australia, including the indigenous community councils, in devising GST assistance programmes for councils.
In addition to assistance under the Local Government Incentive Programme, help for councils with the New Tax System can be obtained from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).
You can obtain information by:
€ Phoning the business Tax Reform Infoline on 13 24 78
€ Phoning the Diesel Fuel Infoline on 1300 657 162
€ Downloading information from the ATO website at www.taxreform.ato.gov.au
€ Obtaining A Fax From Tax on 13 28 60 or
€ Writing to the ATO at PO Box 9935 in your capital city.
