Presented by Robert Clark MP		www.robertclark.net

Bracks' land tax assessments - a nasty surprise in the mail

News Release - Thursday 3 March 2005

This week dozens of local businesses and property owners are receiving a very unpleasant surprise in the mail - their Bracks Government land tax bill.

A small business or investor in the City of Whitehorse with property that was worth $800,000 for land tax last year is being hit with a 45 per cent increase in their land tax bill for 2005.

This will take their land tax from $2,805 last year (2004) to $4,075 this year.

And if the Bracks Government fails to act, there will be a further increase averaging 30 per cent in their tax bill next year, taking their land tax to a massive $5,320 - up a total of 90 per cent in just two years.

I have been contacted by angry and distressed residents and small business people who tell me they just can't afford to pay these sorts of increases and are asking how the Bracks Government can possibly justify them?

The Liberal Party has warned for months that these huge increases are imminent unless Steve Bracks and his Treasurer John Brumby do something to address the issue. Labor must make land tax relief its top tax priority in the upcoming 2005-06 State Budget unless it wants to take responsibility for small and medium businesses going under and ordinary Victorians having their retirement incomes slashed.

Labor knows there is a problem with its land tax regime. Steve Bracks publicly acknowledged that increased property values and consequent increases in land tax were causing financial hardship, saying:

"It's not as if we're unaware of the problems… we'll continuously examine it to make sure it's fairer than it was." Steve Bracks, Neil Mitchell program, 3aw, 15/2/05

Victorians are sick of Steve Bracks saying he will "examine" and "look into" things. Steve Bracks and his Treasurer John Brumby must actually act on land tax.

The people John Brumby is driving out of business or forcing to sell their investments are the backbone of the community, but they have become the forgotten people under Labor.

The Bracks Government needs to go back to periodically revising land tax scales to take into genuine account the changes in land values. This will restore some predictability to future land tax levels and encourage people to start investing in Victoria again.