Now I am not a complete idiot, I do accept the taxation system and acknowledge that tax is a way of life and through paying taxes we have a good health system, good roads, good police, good firemen, public servants to administer this geat nation etc etc. I pay quite a bit of tax in way of income tax, stamp duties, GST, excise etc etc which I never complain about for the reason outlined above...........BUT
........I recenty received a bill in the mail from the State Revenue Office (there is a statement in itself) stating that I have to pay A$500.00 odd for land tax. Ok, so what is land tax, this beast has never raised it's ugly head before. I saw the toll free number on the bill and rang the information office of the State Revenue department where I asked my question......
It turns out that because I have two properties and my "principal place of residence" (that is a quote) is in only one of them so I have to pay tax on the other one. Why......."because it is in the act" is the answer.....ok, so it is in the act, but what does this tax contribute towards, because I already pay rates on the property......."that is a local issue, this is in the State act" is the answer.....that doesn't answer my question....."it is in the act so it is payable" is the answer......ok, that's going no-where, what if i was to say that I am in a relationship and my partner and one of my children live in one property and I and another of my children live in the other property, thus making both properties a principal place of residence......."I must warn you that providing fraudulent information can result in a fine or imprisonment" is the answer......thank's for that, but you haven't answered my question....."I don't know the answer to that, other than you have told me that you reside at one of the residences and therefore the land tax is payable under the act" is the answer".......my final comment is that this is wrong and I do not agree with it and I plan to fight this crazy tax and I don't think I should have to pay this......"it is in the act" is the answer.....fuck the act.
Now, it just so happens that we moved from our lovely location (those who know us know this story) to be closer to our chosen school, expand our business and be closer to future opportunities for our children. We bought a house in town as we really liked it and could afford it (our bank manager told us this). We decided to put caution to the wind and more than double our mortgage to buy this place and then immediately put our property on the market. Regular readers of this blog would know that we have had real estate agent issues and the threat of bloody great pulp mill being build near the house as well as interest rates going up and up and up...people were simply not buying houses in that area. Fine, if our crystal ball was working we probably would have held off moving and tried to seel our first property before buying the one we are in now (aka - our principal place of residence). As punishment for our devil may care, go forth bravely into uncharters waters, brazen leap of wanton abandonment we have been paying an extremely large double mortgage to our bank for ten months, paying double rates, paying double insurance, maintaining two properties and working our collective arses off to exisit in these trying times.....now for the State government to tax us just because we have two properties and only live in one is absolutely crazy - it feels as though the government has penalized us for taking a risk to better our future. If the bloody government hadn't stretched it's bum cheeks for the reeming of the proponents of the pulp mill and spent our taxes on flogging a dead horse for so long then maybe my house would have been sold earlier and this wouldn't be an issue.
I just this this tax is wrong.
4 comments:
Great to hear you're also taking a stand on this. From discussions with the Valuer Generals Office,
sounds like they are also amazed at how greedy the State Government has gotten. I think we need to
get a lobby group going on this. Its actually a bit more perverse than you might think because there
are provisions in the Land Tax Act 2000 to give relief but from what I can see, these are being
circumvented by the state government. You're paying $500 annually for your second house which is in the 0.55% marginal land tax bracket because its land value and not house value that counts. It gets much worse if you
own more land (e.g. have inherited say $350k of land). Then you can easily be up for the marginal
rate of 2.55% i.e. five times as much per year which on a $100k extra block of land equates to
$40/week to the state government in exchange for nothing in return and for property you own rather
than rent.
"LAND TAX RATING ACT 2000 - SCHEDULE 1, RATE OF LAND TAX (from www.sro.tas.gov.au)
For total land less than $25,000 --> Land Tax is Nil
For total land of $25 000 to $349 999 --> Land Tax is $50 plus 0.55% of value above $25 000
For total land of $350 000 to $749 999 --> Land Tax is $1 837.50 plus 2% of value above $350 000
For total land of $750 000 and over --> Land Tax is $9 837.50 plus 2.5% of value above $750 000
Unfortunately a vast majority of Tasmanian voters don't give a rat's about this because at most they
only own their principal residence. That's why we other people pay a large amount each in order to
give state treasury its demanded $80M/year from land tax revenues. I complained about the excessive
rate of land tax last year to Bass MHA Kim Booth and Rosevears MLC Kerry Finch and never got a reply
from either. So those who do really need to object to it should to form a lobby group in order to achieve reform. If you'd like to attend a public meeting on excesses of the current land tax system,
send an email to fairer.land.tax.tas@gmail.com and we'll add you to the list of interested persons.
At the very least, we can pool our knowledge to work in a more informed way at tackling the problem.
Every instance uncovered of abuse by the State Revenue Office and Valuer Generals Office helps reveal the pattern and if necessary provide the basis of a Supreme Court class action. Acting individually, not much will be accomplished and I expect State Revenue knows they can bluff each of us to their hearts' content!
Another in the ceaseless queue of rapists intent on the total extraction of citizens' wealth by any form of chicanery possible.
To fight this playing by their rules will result in nothing but frustration for you and justify the employment of a bevy of bureaucrats who will lead you down a merry path of ceaseless circles.
Use my motto….screw them before they screw you!
Can I go home now?
Two lots of lyrics that I am sure you know better than I.....perhaps my most favourite of all time....
Must the show go on?
Oooooo pa, (let me go, let me go, let me go.)
Oooooo ma, (take me home, take me home, take me home.)
There must be some mistake,
I never meant to let them take,
Away my soul.
Am I too old?
Is it too late?
Where has the feeling gone?
Will I remember this song?
The show must go on.
and who could forget......
Welcome my son, welcome to the machine.
Where have you been? It's alright we know where you've been.
You've been in the pipeline, filling in time,
provided with toys and Scouting for Boys.
You bought a guitar to punish your ma,
And you didn't like school, and you know you're nobody's fool,
So welcome to the machine.
Welcome my son, welcome to the machine.
What did you dream? It's alright we told you what to dream.
You dreamed of a big star, he played a mean guitar,
He always ate in the Steak Bar. He loved to drive in his Jaguar.
So welcome to the machine.
So EP.....welcome!
Really need to set the record straight on this one: Kim Booth and Kerry Finch actually only received my complaint email (re: excessive Land Tax) sent last year by way of the CC-mechanism which convention says doesn't generally
require a reply.
Kim made a very interesting point too that forestry plantations don't attract any land tax. If forestry plantation companies did have to pay then according to our present progressive land tax scale, the amount payable each year would be 2.5% of government valuation (of the land). Gunns say they own 200,000 hectares of plantation which for arguments sake might have a value of $5k per hectare at a minimum if its land that's worth growing trees on. Their annual land tax bill would then be 5k x 200k x 2.5 / 100 = $25M
Given that the annual total land tax take for the state is $80M, that extra $25M contribution would be quite significant overall and could also help to ease the burden on the rest of us.
Interesting too to see that South Australians are having similar problems with their state government:
http://geocities.com/riverblocks/AdelaideAdvertiser_04Dec08.html
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