More land taxes proposed
A proposal has been put forward by the Gillard government to levy land tax on family homes.
In a meeting of state and federal treasurers in Canberra, federal treasurer Wayne Swan called on states to abolish stamp duty, funded by increases in land tax.
Victorian treasurer, Kim Wells, criticised comments from Mr Swan that state Liberal treasurers had advocated for a broadening of the GST base and an increase in the tax rate, calling them misleading.
“The Victorian Coalition government has said on a number of occasions we do not support extending GST to services like health and education, and any suggestion by Mr Swan is completely false,” Mr Wells said.
“We have advocated for a number of sensible reforms, including a lowering of the low-value GST threshold for imports.
“Today we also gave in-principle support to the harmonisation of payroll tax and the further examination of income tax sharing, subject to fair revenue sharing mechanisms, overall tax burden considerations and the impact on vertical fiscal imbalance,” he said.