First National Bucks Industry Stance

First National Real Estate CEO, Ray Ellis, disagrees that stamp duties should be replaced with a broadening land tax or any other tax – saying it should just be abolished. 

It has long been recognised that stamp duty as a tax is inefficient and a complete rort, so, while it is obvious it needs to go, it should not be replaced with some other tax. 

When the GST was introduced, it was meant to phase out a number of various state and territory government taxes, duties and levies such as banking taxes and stamp duty. 

More than a decade on, we are still being burdened with stamp duty and it seems the industry is now being portrayed in the media as willing to settle for replacing the duty, instead of having it abolished altogether. 

The upcoming 2011 Federal Tax Summit presents the ideal opportunity to get blanket approval from state and federal governments to abolish this duty and there should be no further talk of ‘replacement’, but to deliver what was promised in the first place. 

A recent article said the OECD supported the rationalisation of state and government taxes, particularly stamp duty on house sales. Ex-Treasurer Peter Costello said it should have been eliminated when the GST was introduced and even the Henry Review recognises the need for it to go. 

The GST was meant to provide sufficient funding for state needs, and if they are not able to raise enough revenue through the GST they need to look at reform, rather than rorting hard-working Australians and replacing one tax for another.  Get rid of stamp duty altogether.