Gavin R. Putland, BE PhD
| Sunday, September 09, 2012 | (Comment) |
Abolishing payroll tax & stamp duty is easier than you think
“From 1 January 2013, payroll tax will be abolished. From the same date, all existing State property taxes will be abolished. These include conveyancing stamp duty, emergency service levies, infrastructure levies on developers, insurance taxes (which in practice are largely paid by property owners), and the existing land tax...
“The benefit of a public infrastructure project is manifested in higher property values in locations served by the project... If the tax system captures a sufficient percentage of each uplift, the project will pay for itself by expanding the revenue base, without increasing tax rates, and without burdening taxpayers who don't share in the benefit...
“So, the abolished taxes will be replaced by a property vendor duty on capital gains realized after 1 January 2013. The duty will apply to the capital gain net of inflation and capital expenditure, at a rate of 40 percent. The other 60 percent will be a net gain for the property owners. In time, most of it will be a gain that they would not otherwise get, due to infrastructure projects that would not otherwise proceed. Expectations of new infrastructure will revive the property market. Property owners will be better off in the further sense that the new vendor duty, unlike the old stamp duty, will be guaranteed not to turn a capital gain into a capital loss or to magnify a loss. Owners who have paid the old stamp duty more recently will be automatically compensated, because their capital gains will be smaller... Home owners who move more frequently will not pay proportionally higher amounts of duty over their lifetimes, but will pay their duty in a larger number of smaller steps...”
— Not the Queensland Budget Speech.
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