By Catherine Cashmore Follow Catherine on Twitter Cross-posted from Macrobusiness There’s been a lot of debate around property taxation in Australia; significantly negative gearing, which allows an investor to use the short fall between interest repayments and other...
BLOG: Stamp Duty
Want a new GST? Sink the old one!
Changing the GST was always intended to be hard and is getting harder by the week. Under the so-called intergovernmental agreement on implementation of the GST, any change in the rate or the base required the unanimous approval of the Federal, State and Territory...
Land Tax Stability
The education of the public via mainstream media continues to grow with Jessica Irvine writing in the Herald Sun today: "State governments do apply some land taxes, particularly on investment properties. But a major recommendation of the Henry review was for a broader...
Not the Queensland Budget Speech
. . . ... Madam Speaker, if the Government is to balance the Budget in these difficult times, it cannot afford to indulge in forms of taxation that shrink the economy from which all public revenue is drawn. In some allegedly “conservative” circles, it has been argued...
Banks Say Thanks to Bailleu for Cutting Stamp Duty
photo credit: Karsoe The new Victorian Liberal Government's move to provide a 20% cut to Stamp Duty will have bankers wringing their hands. The market price for a house will vary little. There will be no saving for First Home Buyers. A 20% reduction for barely 15% of...
Tax reform is hard and dreary work.
photo credit: Cayusa Tax reform is hard for government: losers complain loud and long, while those who will benefit are suspicious and silent. We should be angry as hell about the tax system. It scoops up the earnings of the poor but merely nips at what the wealthy...