Card payment sucharges banned in Australia from 2026

[306]

It’s strange. Aside from tax avoidance for smaller businesses, I do r quite get why they’d think cash is a ‘free’ payment method. There’s no such thing. You’re not paying merchant fees but what if the costs in devoting a staff member’s time to go to the bank to do the banking and the security risks (aside from staff pretending to be robbed to take the day’s takings for themselves.

a/ Maybe, but if it's a small business, say about 1m pa, I'm not trusting a staff to count the money, let alone bank it. That's less than 20k per week, 5k a day. Considering you can deposit 10k per day through ATMs, anything under this amount is easily handled. And 1m in cash in $100 bills or gold is suprisingly small

b/ If I'm committing tax avoidance, why would I let someone else count it and bank it, plus the amount banked is lower (obviously)

Cash is "free" for these businesses, and electronic payments are a massive headache. Have you ever tired to reconcile payments that come from personal banks accounts for business customers, where you do not know know their legal personal names. And every time you tell them to add the description the next payment, they put the product name, or my business name in the description, instead of invoice number.

The amount you declare is a business decision, It's just as easy to give a few customers my personal payid details and have them pay me directly unstead of to the business.

Go to any bakery and pay by payid, and it's not to a business named account, most of these small businesses, rightly or wrongly, use personal accounts to manage their business expenses.

Or better still, you are helping them commit tax avoidance by directly paying into their personal accounts. a few dollars here and there. Then they take away the sign to pay by payid, and accept cash only for the rest of the day.

 

[Peter D]

I have always felt that, the theory that handling of cash is an added cost to a small business seems to be red herring in the argument.

A credit card merchant fee is an actual added cost that the business pays in dollars to an outside organisation.

In a small business cash handling including banking it is usually done by a business owner or an already employed and paid staff member. Visits to the bank are also in otherwise quiet but still staffed times. In itself it does not involve an actual special payment or cost.

I still don’t like paying the card fee.

 

[Waddygib]

I have always felt that, the theory that handling of cash is an added cost to a small business seems to be red herring in the argument.

A credit card merchant fee is an actual added cost that the business pays in dollars to an outside organisation.

In a small business cash handling including banking it is usually done by a business owner or an already employed and paid staff member. Visits to the bank are also in otherwise quiet but still staffed times. In itself it does not involve an actual special payment or cost.

I still don’t like paying the card fee.

Opportunity cost.

What could the staff member be doing instead?

What is the risk of theft?

What is the cost of serving fewer customers due to the need to physically handle the cash and count out the change?

Same as I said earlier: there are many variables costs in serving any customer (annoying customers are more expensive as they take up more time) but no surcharging for that.

Surcharging for payment choice is only possible because the cost is easy to calculate. That doesn't make it the right thing to do.

 

[306]

Opportunity cost.

What could the staff member be doing instead?

What is the risk of theft?

What is the cost of serving fewer customers due to the need to physically handle the cash and count out the change?

Same as I said earlier: there are many variables costs in serving any customer (annoying customers are more expensive as they take up more time) but no surcharging for that.

Surcharging for payment choice is only possible because the cost is easy to calculate. That doesn't make it the right thing to do.

That may be for a business with zero downtime, there are are no such businesses.

Opportunity cost is just a big money thing, in the real world, a boss will just get someone else to go it, or do it themself, and then spend that extra time after work to get $hit done.

 

[daft009]

That may be for a business with zero downtime, there are are no such businesses.

Opportunity cost is just a big money thing, in the real world, a boss will just get someone else to go it, or do it themself, and then spend that extra time after work to get $hit done.

still a PITA for myself, for the 2 cheques we get a year.... so hard to make it to a bank during their silly opening hours. cash would need more frequent visits
just pay me using CC and that 1% I absorb is worth it

 

[NoName]

Cash payments also take longer for the staff to process since they require stuffing around receiving the cash and then finding the right change. Also imagine a business handing large amounts of physical currency would incur higher insurance premiums. Staff theft would be higher. Probably many other costs of cash transactions that people aren’t even considering.

 

[306]

That may be, but I'm talking small business, those under 2m turnover per year or under 4 staff.

Number of small businesses in Australia

www.asbfeo.gov.au

88.5% of businesses are self-employed or <5 staff
92% of businesses are under 2m turnover

So clearly the majority, those are non concerns for those businesses, my insurance does not ask me what % is cash and what is others, plus the hike in insurance is clearly due other other causes.
edit - in fact, the lower my turnover, the lower my insurance premium.

<4 staff, you or your family is counting the cash, and probably working 12+ hrs a day, whats another 30 minutes counting in front of the tv, eating your dinner.

As for other considerations, I think many are more concerned about surviving another year. The cost and availibility of labour, paying under table, where having cash available is even more important to their survival.

And as I said, 5k cash is hardly a large amount, even 10k daily. It may be for most people today who are fully cashless, but it isn't for businesses.

 

[NoName]

Your insurer knows that your business is almost entirely non-cash so they have no need to ask you anything. Try telling them that you are cash only with employees handling the transactions and making daily trips to the bank and see what they say.

Your contention appears to be that spending 30 minutes counting cash at the end of the day doesn’t count as work since you’ve already worked 12 hours. Presumably spending another 30 minutes transporting it to the bank every day also isn’t work for the same reason. And since the additional work (that isn’t really work) is being done by family members then it isnt worth anything. If you turn the tv on during the day would that help turn other tasks in to non-work-work too? And all that time definitely could not be spent doing something else more productive to help generate income. Interesting thinking. I think I’ll tap out until the conversation returns to reality.

 

[306]

I don't disagree with what you have said, just saying that not everyone is the same and thinks the same about work/family, additional non paid work.

It's just my experience, with almost every business that I have worked with, who are primarily Asian, cash handling businesses, 1st generation, clearly have different ideas. They would think nothing of doing the extra 30 minutes, or come home after midnight. It truely is "not worth anything"

Some of these family run businesses have been running for the last 30-40 years, they do not have other things to do, maybe except go back to the homeland once every 5 years or so when they can find the time to visit the relos, work is their whole life. Pretty much the same as it would have been if they did not come to Australia.

But I can see that way of thinking is changing, the old generation are in their 60s+ and begining to retire, and their kids do not what to take over, who wants to be working 60+ hours a week? They have the same "beliefs" you have, I'm not working the extra 30 minutes for nothing.

But hey, this is abit OT.

Back on topic, cash is still preferred by them, or gold

edit - Its only really been in the last 5 years since covid that many of these businesses even started accepting card payments, before then, it was pretty much 100% cash only, maybe the only exception was within the CBD. Many are still reluctant to accept cards, its what you know and you stick with it. Might do a quick survey this week to check how many are still cash only / payid / card.

2/ that 30 minutes unpaid counting is already happening anyway, in the form of unpaid overtime hours