Don’t
ask the Treasurer, apparently he doesn’t know. A proposal’s been put to Treasury suggesting that parents should be able
to salary package the cost of childcare, as it’s one of the many costs of
working, and that – like other costs of working – this should be Fringe Benefits
Tax exempt.

Currently, childcare is FBT exempt if it’s in a workplace childcare place but the proposal is to take this one step
further and make all childcare FBT exempt.

So what
does Cossie have to say about this? Well,
he thinks making childcare tax deductible would benefit only high income earners:

Most
parents, and particularly most women, don’t pay the top marginal tax rate, if
you say to them we will give you a tax deduction, they won’t get the top
marginal tax rate deduction, they will get less than that, they would actually
get less than they are currently getting.

Yeah
but… a tax deduction is not the same as an FBT exemption, and no-one suggested
this should be instead of the 30% rebate.

Cossie’s answering questions no-one asked, while failing to come up with
any answers for working parents.