The South Australian Business Chamber Chief Executive Martin Haese acknowledged the State Government had listened to the collective concerns of the business community on proposed land tax changes, and yesterday’s announcement was a step towards reaching an acceptable outcome, however, more must be done.
“The South Australian Business Chamber has maintained that as a minimum, any land tax changes must be competitive with interstate, but we also need to be confident the data informing the changes is complete,” Mr Haese said.
“We also need to acknowledge the State Government’s pre and post-election land tax changes are two separate policies with separate revenue considerations, and only the first has a mandate from the electorate.”
Mr Haese said the state’s businesses were feeling the economy flatline and any future changes to land tax aggregation need to be carefully considered so as not to further undermine fragile confidence.
“The South Australian Business Chamber has been calling for the government to wait until the state-wide revaluation is complete before proceeding with any land tax aggregation changes, and while a rate drop is definitely positive, it could go further. The revaluation issue also needs to be addressed
in some form,” he said.
“Many hard working business people who followed professional advice to hold property in separate legal entities have done nothing wrong, and it is important that as we further debate land tax reforms we do not demonise South Australians complying with the law.”
“The business community wants to work with the State Government to put land-tax reforms behind us, but our steps now will have long-term ramifications and should not be rushed.”
For further information or to arrange an interview please contact Lindy Scott on (08) 8300 0038 or 0411 510 849.
10 September 2019
