The Taxation Menace in Property

Not long after my book "Property & Conveyancing Made Easy" was released, both the New South Wales and Victorian state governments made similar announcements, at the same time, to review stamp duty with land tax during 2021. There has been an ongoing debate about stamp duty, once a small tax, and previous promises by opposition parties to abolish it if elected. This never happened. When the GST was introduced by the Howard Government in Canberra, their campaign was GST = Good-Bye Seven Taxes. The defunct Australian Democrats in the Senate demanded basic food grocery items, health and education to be exempt from GST as a trade-off. Those seven taxes, including stamp duty, remain.
Paul McKenzie,
ABS Conveyancing
BiziNet Magazine #107 - Apr/May 2021