Ta Ann --- the supreme beggar

Ta Ann Tasmania Pty Limited (TAT), the current leading light of the Tasmanian timber industry finally revealed the extent of its accumulated losses with the belated lodgement of its 2012 annual financial report with ASIC in late June 2013.

The losses of $10.2 million on revenue of $28 million means losses now total $26.8 million. TAT doesn’t have bank borrowing. Its losses have been financed by its parent which is now owed $28.2 million.

It’s probably just a coincidence that the compensation from the IGA of $26 million resulting from the proposed reduction in wood supply from public native forests, is almost the same as the amount owed to the parent company. It was thought that some of the compensation might be used to build value adding production facilities like a plywood mill but Mr Rudd has just committed a further $7.5 million from IGA funds for that purpose.

FBT hysteria

Hysteria from interest groups whenever governments announce plans to trim handouts usually indicates an absence of suitable contra arguments. Government plans to change the fringe benefits tax treatment of motor vehicles is a case in point.

How dare the government contemplate reducing allowable claims for motor vehicle expenses to amounts actually incurred in earning assessable income?

It’s reminiscent of the outrage that accompanied the curtailing of entertainment expenses, which critics said would destroy the restaurant industry. Before the changes, a little imagination combined with few scruples made it possible to categorise many social engagements as deductible entertainment events when they were really just mutually agreed taxpayer-funded piss-ups.