After months of pushback from industry leaders and other state premiers, Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk today scrapped the state’s controversial proposed land tax changes.
In what would have been an Australian-first, landholders would have needed to voluntarily disclose their interstate holdings before being taxed for Queensland holdings. The value of purchasers’ investment properties across the country would have been used to determine their Queensland land tax rates.
The tax changes would have impacted some 10,000 landholders and added thousands of extra dollars to investors’ Queensland land tax each year. The Queensland Government would have raised $20 million a year with the changes.
The multi-jurisdictional land tax proposition had passed the Queensland state parliament in June. Ms Palaszczuk scrapped the plans on Friday ahead of a national cabinet meeting.
Other state governments refused to pass over their property data to Queensland Treasury for the tax changes. The state opposition heavily criticised the changes, labelling them a “renter’s tax” that would see the increased costs passed on to renters.
“I think the greater good has been served here, now there’s confidence in wanting to invest in property in Queensland again, and that’s obviously going to be good for not only the economic development of Queensland, but also increasing the critical supply that’s needed for all those people who want to live in Queensland,” said Ben Kingsley, Property Investors Council of Australia chairman.
“The complexity of the tax and its reliance on the self-disclosure of individuals and data-sharing of other states reinforces this plan should be completely scrapped, and not just put on the shelf until a future day,” said Jen Williams, Property Council Queensland executive director.
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