![\"Brittany](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/af71def990bb09f8d3ae9269dff8c75c2d45963c.png\")
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Updated October 8, 2026 \u2014 5:17pm,first published 4:00pm<\/p>\n
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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n No gift articles left<\/p>\n You’ve used all of your gift articles. 3 more will become available on the 1st of every month.<\/p>\n Close<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n Business leaders have demanded the government clarify its stance on the Australian Taxation Office\u2019s sudden removal of credit cards as a payment method, after Labor ministers contradicted each other over the move.<\/p>\n The tax office surprised small business owners earlier this month as the Reserve Bank of Australia\u2019s ban on credit card surcharges came into effect. The ATO said it would stop taking credit card payments for tax bills<\/a> from November 30, arguing it could not absorb the fees.<\/p>\n The ban, which Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has spruiked as a cost-of-living measure that would save households $1.6 billion a year, has incurred the wrath of small businesses and the opposition. Small Business Minister Anne Aly was the first to raise concerns over the ATO\u2019s move on Wednesday, urging the tax office to consult more widely about the ban\u2019s implementation.<\/p>\n Cabinet minister Clare O\u2019Neil weighed in on Thursday morning, saying the government had \u201csome real concerns about what the ATO is proposing to do here\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cSmall businesses across the country really struggle to manage their cash flow, and I know that partly because I grew up in a household where both my mum and my dad ran their own small business,\u201d O\u2019Neil told Nine\u2019s Today show.<\/p>\n The comments put her at odds with Assistant Minister for the Digital Economy Andrew Charlton, who shortly afterwards said the government \u201csupports the ATO\u2019s decision\u201d and that the tax office was ensuring consistency between the public and private sectors.<\/p>\n \u201cThey don\u2019t want the people who are not paying by credit card, which is 98 per cent of taxpayers, to be subsidising those that do,\u201d Charlton told ABC radio.<\/p>\n The confusion sparked calls from the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry for the government to show leadership and provide businesses with certainty.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want a response, and we want one clear outcome which is consistent across government,\u201d chief executive Andrew McKellar told reporters in Canberra.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t want to see agencies like the tax office going alone and acting in this way.\u201d<\/p>\n McKellar said while the tax office has argued the change would only affect 5 per cent of businesses, that figure represented a quarter of a million small businesses.<\/p>\n The ATO stood by its decision after meeting with stakeholders on Wednesday, in a consultation that McKellar said was fruitless.<\/p>\n Opposition Leader Angus Taylor said on Thursday that Labor was \u201call over the shop\u201d.<\/p>\n Related Article \u201cWe\u2019ve had the housing minister in one place, the small business minister somewhere else, and the de facto treasurer has been defending the ATO,\u201d Taylor said.<\/p>\n \u201cBut they should, from today, get rid of the ban, axe the ban that they\u2019ve put on the ability of small businesses to pay tax with their credit cards.\u201d<\/p>\n Shadow treasurer Tim Wilson accused the government of double standards.<\/p>\n \u201cThe government says to small business, you\u2019ve got to absorb these costs, but when it comes to payment systems to us, we\u2019re not going to absorb those costs,\u201d he told News24.<\/p>\n Assistant Minister for Citizenship Julian Hill said on Thursday afternoon the ATO left room for improvement in the announcement, pointing to a lack of consultation with business owners.<\/p>\n \u201cI try not to bash people up, so let\u2019s say it like this: I expect every public agency to be actively engaging, forward-leaning, listening to their customers, to their stakeholders, to the people whose decisions and lives they affect,\u201d he told Afternoon Briefing.<\/p>\n He said it made sense that the tax office wanted to keep operating costs low but that businesses needed to be transitioned away from an important payment system.<\/p>\n In her Thursday morning interview, O\u2019Neil backed the Reserve Bank\u2019s call to scrap credit card fees, saying Labor\u2019s position was that Australians should not be charged to spend their money. But she urged the ATO to find a solution for tax bills in consultation with the business sector.<\/p>\n \u201cCash flow is the biggest thing that\u2019s often of concern for small business, and using credit cards to pay tax bill is a way that a lot of people are just managing that issue,\u201d the housing minister said.<\/p>\n Related Article \u201cWe really want the ATO to go back and talk to business about what they\u2019ve decided to do here and think about how they can find a solution that works.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked why the government was taking credit for the ban but would not resolve the problems associated with it, O\u2019Neil said the changes were working through the system and would take time to finesse.<\/p>\n \u201cOf course, there are going to be some issues as we implement it across the economy, but [it\u2019s] a really good thing.\u201d<\/p>\n Coalition frontbencher Bridget McKenzie, appearing alongside O\u2019Neil on Today, accused the minister of \u201ctrying to walk both sides of the street\u201d.<\/p>\n Independent senator David Pocock also called for the government to intervene and work with the ATO to reverse the ban.<\/p>\n Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n No gift articles left<\/p>\n You’ve used all of your gift articles. 3 more will become available on the 1st of every month.<\/p>\n Close![\"Housing](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/752e9dec98c40b783dc186aba918ed61e5780c51.jpeg\")
Housing Minister Clare O\u2019Neil said the government had concern\u2019s over the ATO\u2019s proposal.Alex Ellinghausen<\/p>\n![\"Assistant](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/b610a68b9129bb36e9636e20bf3800829fef1a93.jpeg\")
Assistant Minister for Science, Technology and the Digital Economy Andrew Charlton said there was \u201cno reason\u201d for businesses to raise prices because of the surcharge ban. Alex Ellinghausen<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/ea69d91f3b66a267c935bf740d7678fd98b20bd7.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Business](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/2a2a7fa9741937c32a1c5ff1f7689d6e15f8aaa3.jpeg\")
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Brittany Busch<\/a> is a federal politics reporter for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated October 8, 2026 \u2014 5:17pm,first published 4:00pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":920436,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99],"class_list":["post-920435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/920435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=920435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/920435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/920436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=920435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=920435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=920435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}