The two largest business tax measures announced today will leave about $270 million of extra cash flow within businesses over the remaining five months of the financial year ending June 30 2009.

These two initiatives within the wider package are:

· Removing the 5% "uplift" rate that businesses pay in advance on provisional tax instalments throughout the year. To calculate the provisional tax they must pay in any given year, most businesses use the previous year's income and add 5% to cover likely growth in the new income year - this 5% uplift will be removed for the rest of this year and next year.

· Reducing the "use of money" interest rates on underpaid and overpaid tax. The rate for underpayments will reduce from 14.24% to 9.73% and the rate for overpayments will fall from 6.66% to 4.23%. These changes will apply from March 1 2009.

· The GST registration threshold will increase to $60,000 in annual revenue from $40,000

· Businesses with $10,000 or less of annual business-related legal expenditure can fully deduct the expense in the year it is incurred, regardless of whether or not it is a capital expense

· The value of minor fringe benefits (such as chocolates and flowers) that can be provided to employees without attracting FBT will increase to $300 a quarter per employee $200, and $22,500 a year per employer from $15,000

· Certain small and medium enterprise tax simplification measures that are part of a bill now before Parliament will be fast-tracked