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The Inland Revenue (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 1995 proposes a number of salaries tax concessions with effect from the 1995-96 year of assessment. In particular, the Bill will:

increase the basic allowance and married person's allowance by 10% to $79,000 and $158.000 respectively;

increase the single parent allowance by 25% to $40,000;

increase allowances for dependent parents, grandparents, first and second child by 10%; and

introduce a new disabled dependant allowance for taxpayers who support a disabled dependant who is eligible to claim the Government's disability allowance.

"This Bill also specifies in greater detail the nature of records which businesses must keep and increases the maximum fine for non-compliance from $5,000 to $100,000. We hope that the new provisions will both help businesses to develop good record keeping practices and encourage compliance with the law," a Government spokesman said.

The Dutiable Commodities (Amendment) Bill 1995 increases the specific duty on hydrocarbon oils and tobacco by 8% in line with inflation in 1994 in order to maintain the real value of the duty.

The Estate Duty (Amendment) Bill 1995 adjusts the level at which estate duty is levied so as to reduce the impact of the tax on relatively small estates. The level below which no duty is payable will be increased from $5.5 million to $6 million. In addition, the Bill also adjusts the band levels above the threshold,

The revenue proposals will, in total, cost $660 million in 1995-96 and $5.2 billion up to 1998-99.

End/Friday, April 21, 1995