Key developments
- Transfer duty bracket creep
- Draft Property, Stock and Business Agents Amendment (Property Reports and Exemptions) Regulation 2016
- Statutory review of Domestic Violence Evidence in Chief reforms
- Improving bankruptcy and insolvency laws: proposals paper
- Review of the Australian Consumer Law
- Biodiversity conservation and land management in NSW
- Draft Workers Compensation Regulation 2016
- Young Offenders Regulation
- Comments on age restrictions of witnesses reporting littering
- ‘Eligible witness’ and the Guardianship Act 1987
Transfer duty bracket creep
Law Society members of the Office of State Revenue Law Society Liaison Committee provided a submission to the NSW Treasurer suggesting it would be timely to address concerns about housing affordability in NSW by dealing with the issue of transfer duty bracket creep.
The Law Society submitted that 3.5 per cent should be the applicable rate from $80 000 to $1 million, given the current rates have not increased since they were introduced in 1986 and median house prices have increased significantly. It was also submitted that annual indexation of transfer duty thresholds should be introduced, in line with recommendations made by the Collins Tax Taskforce in 1988 and the NSW IPART Report on the Review of State Taxation in 2008.
The submission contains some comparative work as to the applicable rates in other Australian jurisdictions and empirical evidence indicating that a reduction in rates of transfer duty incentivises turnover to produce increased transfer duty revenue.
