Perrottet’s stamp duty and land tax backflip
It’s about giving homebuyers a “choice”, says NSW premier Dominic Perrottet, as he scraps long-held plan to abolish stamp duty in its entirety.
NSW
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Dominic Perrottet has officially killed off a long-held plan to gradually replace stamp duty with land tax, in favour of giving homebuyers “choice”.
Mr Perrottet first proposed to replace stamp duty with land tax in 2019, through a process which would take decades.
Land tax reform plans giving first homebuyers the option of paying stamp duty or an annual fee passed the NSW upper house late last year.
Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, Premier Dominic Perrottet would not rule out further expanding the scheme to other buyers if he is re-elected in March.
But if he expands the scheme, properties will not be locked into the property tax option.
That means that future buyers would be able to choose to pay stamp duty upfront.
Mr Perrottet initially proposed to gradually phase out stamp duty entirely by locking all homes into the property tax scheme forever.
Mr Perrottet insisted that he currently has no plans to expand the scheme which allows first homebuyers to avoid stamp duty, but did not rule out going further.
“If there are future reforms, it will all be about choice,” he said.
Mr Perrottet first flagged the idea of replacing stamp duty with a yearly property tax in 2019.
Under the initial scheme, if buyers chose the property tax option, that home would be forever locked into the scheme – meaning future buyers would need to pay the property tax every year.
The scheme would have gradually phased out stamp duty across the state over decades.
But that plan has now been scrapped following consultation.
“I started looking at this two years ago,” Mr Perrottet told the Telegraph.
“I sat in groups and spoke to people and got feedback in relation so it really honed and refined my thinking, and where I’ve landed is it’s all about choice.”
“If you give people choice, then it’s very difficult for people to say that there’s a problem with it,” he said.
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