Following in the wake of the South Australian Government’s decision last week to raise its stamp duty surcharge on foreign buyers of real estate from 4% to 7%, the Queensland Labor Party has followed suit, announcing that it too will increase its surcharge from 3% currently to 7% if it wins tomorrow’s State Election.
The additional stamp duty surcharge is projected to raise an extra $99 million in revenue over the next three years, and would bring Queensland line with New South Wales (8%), Victoria (7%), and South Australia (7%), but put it ahead of Western Australia (4%).
This is obviously excellent policy as it will dampen foreign demand (at the margin) while also providing the State Government with much needed revenue that can be spent for the benefit of the resident population.
Labor also announced a land tax on 850 large property holdings worth over $10 million each (excluding farms), with individual landholders to be charged 2.25% and trusts, companies or absentee landlords to be charged 2.5%. The Budget is expected to raise $227 million over three years from this measure.
Other taxes also announced by Labor included a luxury tax on cars costing more than $100,000 (raising $75 million over three years) and a new betting tax targeting agencies based outside the state (raising $90 million over three years).
All in all, the new tax measures are expected to raise some $491 million over three years.
