Home buyers are boosting the State Government coffers big time with stamp duty payments.Source:News Limited
HOME buyers are boosting the state government’s coffers big time with new figures revealing stamp duty payments have soared.
Australian Bureau of Statistics figures reveal the stamp duty payments to the State Government jumped $273 million between the 2016 and 2017 financial years.
That bought the total amount of stamp duty paid during the 2017 financial year to $3.278 billion.
Real Estate Institute of Queensland CEO Antonia Mercorella said the new figures showed the State Government was taking too much from the property sector.
She said now more than 25 per cent of the total taxation revenue in Queensland was made up of stamp duty on conveyances.
“When land tax and other taxes on property are added to the equation, more than 38 per cent of the total taxation revenue comes from property-related taxes or the equivalent to about $5 billion.’’
REIQ CEO Antonia Mercorella is concerned stamp duty charges are affecting housing affordability.Source:Supplied
Ms Mercorella said the high added costs of buying and selling property was putting some off entering the market.
“Upgraders and downsizers put off the next move because of the onerous stamp duty they will have to pay when they move,” she said.
A buyer paying $750,000 for a home would be slugged about $20,000 more for stamp duty.
Ms Mercorella said stamp duty charges was starting to have an impact on housing affordability.
She said abolishing it would result in a “dramatic boost’’ to property transactions and help improve economic activity.
Nationally property taxes and charges were boosting many State Government bottom lines.
According to CoreLogic analyst Cameron Kusher it earned $52.5 billion in the 2016-2017 financial year – that was 5.9 per cent higher than the pervious year and was now more than double what it was in 2006-2006 financial year.
In the past ten years land taxes in Queensland have increased by 123 per cent.
Mr Kusher said stamp duty was quite a “volatile” source of revenue for governments as it taxed a small proportion of people who were buying a property.
“Moving away from a transactional tax to a tax on all physical properties seems to make a lot of sense,’’ he said.
Source: www.news.com.au