Tax rebate boost for sport

By Lia Bichel
LOCAL athletes, sporting clubs and volunteers could receive a welcome boost at tax time with help from Casey Council.
Casey councillors agreed to write to VicSport in support of their submission to the Federal Government on the future of the Australian Federal Tax system.
Cr Sam Aziz said the desired result would allow parents to claim sporting club memberships, reform fringe benefits of legislation, take some of the salary cost pressure of sporting organisations that pay salary and provide an opportunity to volunteers to receive a tax rebate.
The move was made by Cr Aziz following an initial motion by Cr Kevin Bradford, who was set to write to Federal Members of Parliament for Holt, Flinders and LaTrobe seeking their support to lobby Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan to consider allowing parents to claim their children’s membership fees.
Cr Bradford said his motion may have been “pushing the line”, but added the council should work to encourage children and their families to be active.
“Over the last couple of years, it has become more and more challenging to parents, especially those with multiple children, to enable their child to participate in organised sporting group.
“There is starting to be a small descent in the number of children starting at sporting clubs because it’s too financially difficult,” Cr Bradford said.
“What I am asking for, is to see if we can get support of local Federal members to see if we can get a massive push. I think it’s time we encourage families and make it more cost effective for families to be active.
“We can claim education fees at tax time, and that’s all well and good, but this could help with boredom and obesity in children and the community.”
Cr Aziz said he agreed with part of Cr Bradford’s idea, but not on how to achieve it. He said he did further research on the issue because Cr Bradford’s motions were “half-baked” and encouraged the council to not write to the Federal MPs, but instead write to VicSport, the Australian Local Government Association and Victoria Local Governance Association.
“I think it’s a much stronger motion to achieve traction on the issue. It’s foolish to think we can change the tax system. What’s more important is to collude with peak bodies who are already pushing for reform of the tax agenda for sporting claims,” Cr Aziz said.
“I think (Cr Bradford’s motion) was very short-sighted as well as a totally wasted attempt to have a go at this issue. It was going to waste council’s time and not get sporting organisations the outcome they needed.”
Cr Bradford said he did not think it would be a “waste of time” to write directly to the Federal MPs, but was pleased that the final motion agreed upon by councillors addressed his initial concern.