The Federal Budget and Dentistry

The following constitutes a preliminary analysis only of the impact of yesterday's Federal Budget on dentistry and dentists.

The first point worth noting is that there is still no Commonwealth funded dental scheme to help reduce waiting lists. If any additional (meagre) funds are to flow towards needy public patients it will be via the adjustments to private health insurance, which around 10% of health care card holders still use. These changes were previously reported in this Blog yesterday and on 27 April.

The caps on student Fee-Help loans are to be lifted from $50,950 to $80,000 for new and existing students. From next year, dental students and their medical and veterinary colleagues, will be able to take out loans of up to $100,000. This a welcome move given that the number of full fee places is growing and the debt faced by prospective full fee students doing the current 5-year undergraduate degree is over $150,000 (before living expenses).

Changes to superannuation benefits including the abolition of reasonable benefits limits and introduction of a universal contribution limit of $50,000 p.a. are noteworthy, as are adjustments to small business taxation. For assets acquired from today, a 200% diminishing value depreciation rate will apply, rather than the previous 150% rate. Members should talk to their accountants about this.

Depending on income level, the other obvious budget benefit is the adjustment to income tax rates. This area is already comprehensively covered in the mainstream media.

As expert commentary is published, additional budget implications will be highlighted in subsequent Blog posts.