Brief: Government considers GST on financial services
The Government is considering a proposal to extend the goods and services tax to financial services, according the the Australian Financial Review. Parliamentary Budget Office research estimated that a GST on banking and other financial services transactions could raise as much as A$27 billion. One reason banking was exempt from the GST was the complexity of administering it but proponents of an extension into financial services argue that digitisation of the industry has made the process easier.