Australian small business owners are questioning how government support translates into help with their day-to-day bills. In a Yahoo Finance report by Sophie Venz, burger-shop operator Dominique Smith and salon owner Krystal Solera describe tax collection, employment costs and upcoming payment changes as pressures on their businesses.
Their accounts contrast with Treasurer Jim Chalmers’s emphasis on $3.5 billion in small-business tax relief in the federal budget. The disagreement is not simply over whether support exists. Solera says measures such as deductions for equipment offer little practical help when she struggles to pay for the products her salon needs to serve customers.
A Tax Notice With Personal Consequences
Smith started Moobi Burgers in 2020 and operates two takeaway shops on the NSW Central Coast. She told Yahoo Finance that she received a $150,000 Director Penalty Notice from the Australian Taxation Office last year after she could not pay her activity statement. She described trying unsuccessfully to reach a manageable agreement with the tax office.
Such notices allow the ATO to recover selected unpaid tax debts or superannuation charges from company directors personally. According to the report, the ATO issued more than 84,000 notices in the 2024–25 financial year, a 136 percent increase on the previous year. Those figures concern notices issued, not the number of businesses that closed.
Tax Ombudsman Ruth Owen said company directors have important responsibilities and personal liabilities that many do not fully understand. Smith said liquidation and shifting the business to her husband ultimately became necessary in her case. That is her account of the response to her debt, not general advice on resolving a Director Penalty Notice.
Small Business Owners Question Practical Support
Solera built Luxe Label, a hair-extension and colour salon in Perth, over 17 years and employs nine people. She told Yahoo Finance that her recent public criticism of the government was unusual for her. Her complaint centred on the combined obligations of paying wages, superannuation and taxes while keeping the salon supplied.
She acknowledged that JobKeeper helped her business through COVID-19. But she said there had been stretches this year when she could not afford to buy hair, the product central to her work. In that situation, she argued, a tax deduction for a new chair did not address the immediate problem of serving a client.
The report also describes the $325 Energy Bill Relief Fund payment available to small businesses, which ended last year. Solera said that assistance arrived while her superannuation, tax and insurance costs were rising. Her criticism concerns how that support compared with costs at her salon; it does not establish that every business had the same experience.
Current Changes and Proposals Are Different
The Yahoo Finance report describes an end to card surcharges as an upcoming change, due the following month. Smith said she was concerned about the processing fees businesses would then have to absorb and the consequences for prices. Her comments describe the effect she expects, rather than costs already measured after the change.
The report separately says payday super changes took effect in July. It describes businesses needing cash available sooner to meet workers’ superannuation entitlements instead of paying quarterly. That timing issue is distinct from the proposed restrictions on non-compete clauses, for which the government had released draft legislation.
Employment Minister Amanda Rishworth said the non-compete proposal was intended to improve job mobility for workers including hairdressers, childcare workers and construction workers. The report presents that measure as proposed legislation, not an already-operative ban. The distinction matters when describing which obligations businesses currently face and which changes remain ahead.
Survey Evidence Adds Context
Yahoo Finance cites NAB’s business survey as showing confidence fell in August and remained below early-2026 levels. It separately describes business conditions as being at their lowest point in six years. Confidence and conditions are different measures; the report does not establish that confidence itself reached a six-year low.
For Smith and Solera, the central concern is the gap between the government’s description of support and their experience of meeting bills. Their interviews give specific examples of that strain, alongside the reported enforcement figures and survey results, without establishing that any single policy explains the wider business climate.