NSW Premier to stonewall Queensland’s plan to hike land tax by refusing to share data

The NSW Premier is set to stonewall his Queensland counterpart’s attempts to reach over the border and tax thousands of NSW residents more on their property. Here’s how he’ll do it.

The NSW government will refuse to hand over data to Queensland to help Annastacia Palaszczuk slug investors thousands if they own property in the Sunshine State.

The state government will now rely on NSW investors to self-report their land values.

Under controversial tax ­reforms set to come into effect from June next year, property owners would face a massive hike in the amount of land tax they pay to the Queensland government if they have investment properties in both states.

The tax changes mean that, from next year, Queensland residents will have their land tax calculated according to the value of property they own across Australia.

Anyone with investment properties in multiple states, including Queensland, would be impacted. If the total value of eligible property across Australia exceeds the $600,000 threshold, they will be charged.

For example, a retiree who owns $599,999 worth of property in Queensland and an ­investment property worth $400,000 in NSW would not currently pay land tax in ­either state, as both properties are below relevant thresholds.

However, under Ms Palaszczuk’s changes, that retiree would have to pay almost $2700 in land tax each year in Queensland.

A Queensland government fact sheet states that land owners will need to declare interstate holdings.

It appears the scheme will rely on other jurisdictions – like NSW – to share taxpayers’ data with Queensland so that the new tax can be enforced.

The Courier-Mail can ­reveal the NSW government will refuse to co-operate.

Dominic Perrottet will not co-operate with the Queensland government’s tax plans. Picture: NCA Newswire/ Gaye Gerard

“We will reject any request from Queensland Labor to help facilitate this lazy policy,” NSW Premier Dominic ­Perrottet said.

“Labor don’t support first-home buyers in NSW and now the Queensland Labor government is reaching across the border to tax NSW properties and hard working residents.”

NSW Finance Minister Damien Tudehope said his government didn’t support the Queensland land tax laws and would not be implementing them there, “nor are we looking to share landholder data that could facilitate double taxation by Labor”.

“This sort of tax grab is exactly what you would expect from a Labor government – they never miss an opportunity to raise taxes,” he said.

It can also be revealed that Queensland has not yet made any data-sharing requests with Revenue NSW in order to get access to the data ­needed to implement the tax.

But two weeks ago, on ­September 14, Queensland Treasurer Cameron Dick said the government had communicated with all other revenue offices.

“We work across jurisdictions and we work with ­revenue officers,” he said.

“But if other states want to be on the side of speculators who want to come up to this state, flip properties and stop Queenslanders getting into the property market, well those states can stand up and be heard. If they want to be on the side of interstate property speculators avoiding paying land tax, well that’s a matter for those states.

“But to this point, our Queensland Revenue Office is working across jurisdictions with other revenue officers.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk first mooted the plans last year. Picture: Tara Croser.

“We do that all the time there and we do that with the Australian Taxation Office. Those revenue offices work very cooperatively.

“And I’ve not heard anything other than co-operation that’s happening towards implementing this legislative change.

“I’m not aware of any other revenue office that is opposed to the work that we are doing, and we’ve communicated with all those revenue offices.”

While owners won’t be charged land tax on interstate properties, the amount of tax imposed will be based on the Queensland proportion of the land someone owns across the entire country.

Someone’s primary home is exempt from land tax, but Queensland government information states that a property owner would need to “apply” to have their home “excluded” from the land tax calculation. Mr Tudehope said NSW Labor Leader Chris Minns had questions to answer over whether he would implement a similar scheme.

“A sneaky new tax like this on retirees as well as mum-and-dad investors is exactly the sort of thing Chris Minns would sign up for,” he said.

However, NSW Labor’s treasury spokesman Daniel Mookhey said the party would not change land tax rules if it won government.

“We’re busy opposing ­Dominic Perrottet’s radical plan to introduce a permanent land tax on family homes, starting with first-home buyers and then pensioners,” Mr Mookhey said.

“We have no plans to change NSW’s rules about ­eligibility for land tax.”

NSW Property Council acting executive director Adina Cirson said the ­organisation had raised concerns about the new tax since December and had sought legal advice about whether it was constitutional.

Originally published as NSW Premier to stonewall Queensland’s plan to hike land tax by refusing to share data