On 16 April 2012, the Property Council made a submission to the State Revenue Office on the Exposure Draft of the Duties Amendment (Landholder) Bill 2012. We also made a detailed submission last year on the discussion paper.
This Landholder Duty reform is completely at odds with the Victorian Government’s aims for reducing red tape and promoting job creation.
We recommend the Victorian Government align its Landholder Duty regime with the state’s largest competitor for investment: NSW. Otherwise, property companies will invest in states with taxation regimes that have less red tape and lower costs than Victoria.
The Property Council supports the need for reform of landholder duty in Victoria. We believe that taxation reform should aim to deliver the following benefits:
- improved efficiency;
- an enhanced investment environment, to make it easier to do business in Victoria, and
- greater productivity and economic growth.
The Property Council is disappointed that the reforms proposed by the Victorian Government will not achieve these goals.
At the very least, the Victorian Government should make one simple change to align landholder unit trust rules with the company provisions. This being, to align duty for companies and unit trusts so investors pay landholder duty when they acquire 50 per cent, or more, in both companies and unit trusts.
This requires one change to the draft legislation: “a corporation means a unit trust scheme or a company”.
Please contact Policy Manager, Mendo Kundevski, on 03 9650 8300, about this reform and the Property Council’s larger taxation agenda.
