Backpacker tax rates
Prior to the movement of the tax free threshold for earnings from about $6000 per year to $18,000 per year (now it is $20,000 per year and after that it is 19 cents in the dollar), there used to be a harvest tax in place of 15 cents in the dollar.
As the Federal Government moves to treat holiday makers as foreign residents for tax purposes, it appears that they will be taxed at 32.5 cents in the dollar.
So if the cherry harvest over the past few years, or your packing operation for that matter, has been heavily reliant on backpacker workers, it must be time that you gave support to Cherry Growers of Australia and the President, Tom Eastlake in a bid to support a 19 cent option if that is what you support.
Reducing or changing the supply of a large section of the labour force for harvesting and packing cherries and other horticultural produce could have profound effects on the way the work force has been applied in horticulture over the last few years.
Hopefully a common sense answer is found for this issue. There is a Federal election coming later this year, find out where your electoral candidate sits on this issue and let your thoughts be known.
Registration of employer agencies
There have been cases recently of workers not being fully paid for work done in harvesting and packing.
Non-payment of superannuation and tax rates, underpaying prescribed rates—these have been issues compounding a bigger problem.
There is no issue with properly registered and legitimate labour supply agencies. They provide a welcome and timely service to horticultural producers.
It is very easy for the tax man and Work Safe and ASIC to find the horticultural producers. They have one address (mostly), they have an ABN registration, they pay their taxes and are registered complying with the necessary agencies.
Not so easy to find sometimes are the labour hire suppliers who take advantage of their workers, sometimes moving from state to state, their numbers with complying authorities often non-existent or incorrect, vacating the scene at the last moment to set up in another unsuspecting area.
Where does the responsibility lie with that issue I ask? Make sure that your labour supplier is compliant, if not, you may be up for half of what the workers are still owed!
See this article in Tree Fruit March 2016
