Allan Government tax take to jump 6.2 per cent: levies and duties soar

Victorians were already being hit with tax, levy and duty hikes, but there’s more to come from the Allan Government in 2025-26.

Victorian Local Goverment Minister Nick Staikos has set the fair go rates cap at 3 per cent for 2025-26, while the Allan Government hikes its tax take by 6.2 per cent.

The Allan Government’s tax take is set to surge 6.2 per cent to $41.56bn in 2025-26, as it tries to cover its soaring $38.4bn wages bill and another $5bn in superannuation costs.

The recent rebadging of the Fire Services Property Levy as an Emergency Services Volunteer Fund, will drag in an extra $616m for the government, with more than 90 per cent of the tax going towards paying public servants’ wages.

East Gippsland mayor John White slammed the government’s soaring tax take, especially when he said it would be councils that copped the flak for the government’s massive hike in the FSPL charge, which will appear on farmers’, households’ and businesses’ 2025-26 rate notices.

“So many people see the number at the bottom of their rates bill and think ‘bloody council’, when it’s a state government charge,” Mr White said.

“It so unjust they’re hitting everyone with these new taxes. It’s a total mismanagement of the economy that was initiated by (former Premier) Daniel Andrews and now they’re broke.”

The government’s recent December budget update shows it plans to raise:

PAYROLL tax revenue from $9.071bn this financial year to $9.41bn in 2025-26.

DUTY on vehicle registrations and transfers from $1.37bn to $1.422bn.

INSURANCE tax revenue from $2.221bn to $2.332bn.

Since Labor was elected in 2014, the amount Victorians pay in insurance duty has risen from $909m to $1.8bn in 2023-24.

The government has promised the 10 per cent duty on business insurance premiums would be phased out over 10 years from July 1, 2024, at a rate of 1 per cent a year.

Yet the budget update shows it still expects insurance duty revenue to rise to $2.5bn by 2027-28.

The government has also lifted probate fees on deceased estates by up to 650 per cent, with new fees ranging from $2400 for properties worth $1m to $2m, to $16,803 on those worth more than $7m.

At the same time Local Government Minister Nick Staikos has announced the Fair Go Rates Cap on councils will rise from 2.75 per cent this financial year to 3 per cent in 2025-26.

Municipal Association of Victoria president Jennifer Anderson said she understood rate capping was popular with Victorians, “but at the same time it has to be sustainable”.

Ms Anderson would not be drawn into a debate on the Allan Government’s soaring tax take, simply stating: “I don’t think we’re in a position to comment on what the state government does.”