07 June 2000

Government delivers GST help to New Ethnic Businesses

Chris Jordan, Chair of the New Tax System Advisory Board, announced today,"the GST Start-Up Assistance Office and the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) are delivering seminars intended for newly established ethnic businesses in Australia. Primarily, these are ethnic business owner/operators where a language other than English is commonly used in running their business. We have identified communities in need of language assistance in order to prepare for the New Tax System."

Bi-lingual speakers, including speakers from the ATO, will conduct seminars in six languages: Arabic, Thai, Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean and Japanese.

"These seminars are in response to the highly successful GST briefings session held in every capital city in April, where ethnic business and community leaders were invited to attend and discuss issues pertaining to their community", said Mr Jordan.

"Overall, businesses are busily preparing for the New Tax System. We want to ensure that all Australian businesses have access to materials that are easy to read and understand—in English and other languages—to ensure GST-readiness for 1 July", explained Mr Jordan.

The seminars cover GST business skills and compliance issues to prepare for the New Tax System.

"The response has been overwhelming: a Thai GST seminar held last week attracted over 170 participants in Sydney, and we’re expecting similar responses to the rest of seminar rollout. We’re looking into video taping these seminars for wider distribution", said Mr Jordan.

Established ethnic business communities can still access translated materials. The Australian Taxation Office and the GST Start-Up Assistance Office have many translated publications and materials in up to 33 languages. The latest translation from the GST Start-Up Assistance Office is the new release Re-pricing and The New Tax System booklet.

Re-pricing and The New Tax System designed to provide a basic guide on how businesses should prepare and change their prices. It’s free and can be ordered from GST Assist 13 30 88.

Seminars are being held in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane. For seminar details, please call Sophia Estephan at Ethnic Communications, 02 9569 1366.

Media Contact: Anita Shooks, New Tax System Advisory Board, 02 6216 2318

Sophia Kalogeropoulos, GST Start-Up Assistance Office, 02 6263 4454