Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Most businesses wont be subjected to the tax directly at all.... sure there are direct impacts of electricity... and it's fair enough to pass them on...

Some businesses... like those that use refrigerant gases... will be directly impacted... and again can pass on those charges....

And down the track many businesses will probably be impacted by fuel/freight charges... or other supply line impacts.... as the carbon tax is expanded...

But they will, or at least should be minimal... and aren't due for another 1-2 years...

There will no doubt be many, if not most... businesses that immediately raise prices... but without the justification to do so....

You're right Yabbies... many businesses might not be aware of exactly, or even approximately.. what price impacts the 2 day old tax might have on their product...

But that's not an excuse for immediately raising prices... particularly on pre-carbon tax stock....

That's just dodgy price gouging....

I mean to say... just what would they be basing the price rise on.... a 10% increase due to the carbon tax.... a 5% increase... a 20% increase....

Most businesses don't know... wont know, until any supply line increases come down the line....

So they're just guessing at best... or at worst, just using it as an excuse.... to rip people off.. to price gouge...

I wonder how many businesses will drop their prices once Tony Abbott repeals the carbon tax... not many I bet...

Not that Abbott will repeal the tax if he wins office anyway...

Liability starts on the 1st July, if your council attracts the carbon tax prices go up from the 1st, simply. Cost are then passed on, you can take your business else where but at the moment I am stuck with this council

How much has your local council raised prices/rates.... and on what items...

Ask them for an explaination and breakdown.... if it appears excessive... pass it on to ASIC...

Most, if not all the businesses that are directly liable for paying the carbon tax will be fully aware of their liability. They are all large corporations and local councils etc… and will have crunched the numbers long ago.

For small to medium businesses it will take probably 1-3 months before they become aware of the direct increases, gas, electricity, steel supplies etc etc, and probably another 3 months after that until the not-so-obvious increases filter through, the price of stock, materials, consumables etc… but in the meantime they have to cover themselves, especially those that are already financially marginal and those that operate on high volumes with low margins… they can’t afford to do nothing and find out in 3 months, or 6 months, that they’ve had a significant drop in GP that they haven’t budgeted for.

If you run a small business that doesn't use massive amounts of electricity, gas, steel, etc... such as a small retailer that buys in stock, or a computer repair shop etc... then yes, putting your prices up on July 1st would probably be considered gouging. In reality, those guys dictate their own prices anyway and if they want to increase them they can, they just wouldn't be silly enough to say it's because of the carbon tax. Plus, they couldn't increase them too much because they wouldn't be competitive. Heck... about twelve months ago I went through my store and put the price of everything up by a few percent, I had to, but I haven't had a visit from ASIC.

All true Yabbies.... but as supply line prices come through the system... then you can justify passing them on... and businesses will know when that happens...from their invoices...

Those businesses that are liable to a carbon tax... as you say... already know, or should know their liability....

But most of the businesses you're talking about... aren't liable to the carbon tax... the only effect might be in price rises on new stock into the future...

So they don't have an excuse... or at least not one they can attirbute to the carbon tax... to raise prices now... on existing stock... unless there's an electricity, or refrigrerant component in handling the product of the business...

And in the future... any price pass on will be mainly attributable when the carbon pricing impacts on fuel/freight... but that's 12-18 months away....