Statement from the Shadow Treasurer

Statement from the Shadow Treasurer, James Newbury

James Newbury, Shadow Treasurer

In a major misunderstanding of how the tax system operates, the Minister for Finance has mistakenly stated:

“Your home is your principal place of residence. We don’t tax your principal place of residence. We’ve never done that. We never will”.

The Minister is wrong. Many Victorians are being taxed on their family home.

The Minister’s error is offensive to the hardworking Victorians who are carrying Labor’s tax burden and paying tax on their family home.

In fact, data reported earlier this year showed that following a matching of Australian Tax Office data with the State Revenue Office, 400,000 Victorians who run small businesses or short stay accommodation from their home have recently been hit with a land tax bill for the first time.

The Minister for Finance hasn’t only got it wrong. He has potentially got it wrong hundreds of thousands of times.

What the Government has also got wrong is that shifting the workforce into working from home arrangements could trigger a land tax charge for many of those Victorians for the first time.

As legal experts have said, there is scope for land tax obligations to further extend to Victorians who move to work from home two days a week.

Today proves that the State Labor Government doesn’t understand its own tax system and they are refusing to guarantee that Victorians working from home won’t be slugged with a land tax penalty.