EV tax cut will be made retrospective, says minister

When Labor won the election in May it promised it would have in place an EV policy and subsequent EV tax from 1 July.

Although it will not make that deadline, Chris Bowen said the government is making “good headway” on its commitment.

He made the announcement at a Press Club speech on Wednesday (29 June) where he also said the EV tax cut is just “one part” of Labor’s electric vehicle policy.

“We also promise driving the nation to deliver a fast-charger once every 150 kilometres on our nation’s highways,” he said.

The tax cuts will see import duties lifted from a range of electric vehicle models, cutting purchase prices by as much as 5 per cent, as well as exempting some electric vehicle models from the fringe benefits tax.

“We promised to cut the tariffs and abolish fringe benefits tax on affordable EVs from 1 July this year and that’s exactly what we will do,” Mr Bowen told the Press Club.

“When Parliament resumes in late July we will be introducing two pieces of legislation which will progress the agenda for which we received a mandate on May 21.

“Firstly, the Treasurer and I will take through legislation which implements our electric vehicle tax cut.”

Mr Bowen said the government will ask the Tax Office to make the tax cut retrospective, in accordance with the usual procedure.

“Of course, the EV tax cut is just one element of our EV policy,” he said.

“We also promised the Driving the Nation plan of an EV fast charger once every 150 kilometres on the nation’s highways, to convert the Commonwealth fleet to 75 per cent no-emissions vehicles, to create a national Hydrogen Highways refuelling network, to deliver stations on Australia’s busiest freight routes and the development of Australia’s first National Electric Vehicle Strategy.

“We’ve already been working away on implementing each of these policies and made good headway. I look forward to providing progress reports on each of them soon.”