Is stamp duty an effective taxation measure in modern Australia.
Abstract: In Australia, Stamp duty have been a substantial revenue generator for the state governments, accounts for around one-fourth of their taxation revenue (Deloitte, 2015). Lately, it has also been a most talked about topic in between investors & first home buyers. Researchers have reflected that even though these taxes are added on top of the sales price suppositively making a difficult purchase for buyers on papers, sellers are the real loser. Based on four case studies conducted in developed nations, this article shows the negative effects of so-called transaction cost and the economic inefficiency of it. It also elaborates how a Tax reform, replacing Stamp Duty with
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In the country, stamp duty average is approximately 3% of the value of the property. About 13-year period of the dataset was taken into consideration which was received from Australian Property Monitor and later cleaned up with the help of Real Estate Institute (Davidoff & Leigh, 2013).
Since Australian Property Monitor has only provided a proportion of the entire data because of government restrictions, the research analysis is based on Post Code-Level Means rather than individual sales. (All house sales, of all states, covered that were registered by the end of 2006) (Davidoff & Leigh, 2013).
Considering the mean of the log house prices in a postcode as the key price variable, with another crucial measure of the housing market; the log of the number of sales in a postcode in the given year. Correlating the suburbs data by the distance between their centroid with the help of FindMap Pty Ltd. was done (Davidoff & Leigh, 2013).
The analysis reflected that the number of houses sold per postcode goes down by approximately 3%, by increasing
10% stamp duty. This number does not vary at the border
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Also, around 40 characteristics of each house for example family room, construction type, parking space etc. was noticed. (Dachis, Duranton & Turner, 2011).
With the help of the econometric model, which is a hybrid of a regression discontinuity design, the researchers exploit a natural experiment to estimate the effect of Land Transfer Tax. Consistent with a mindset in considering a stamp duty as a tax on moving, the result of the research suggests that this land transfer tax negatively influence the volume of real estate transaction in Toronto by 14% approximately (Dachis, Duranton & Turner, 2011).
Another crucial reflected fact was that even though the tax was introduced on the buyers, it is almost fully capitalized into land prices.
Furthermore, the loss of 14% volume of real estate transaction causes a substantial welfare loss. This welfare loss, the cost of forgone mobility, is quite significant, about $1 for every $8 in tax revenue raised. In other terms, it is around $19 million every year in this case (Dachis, Duranton & Turner,
Patrick Henry had once said, “Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and Slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!” In the 1760’s the British Parliament created the Stamp Act for the British Colonies.
The last quarter of a century has seen a significant change in Dundee’s housing tenure. In 1981, less than 40% of dwelling stock was owner occupied. By 2010, this had risen to 61%. Although there has been a similar pattern of change across much of Europe, the change has been particularly dramatic in Dundee, and indeed Scotland. Mirroring changes in cultural attitudes toward home ownership, two structural factors have contributed to this shift. The introduction of the right to buy for public authority tenants in 1979 coupled with the decline of local authority new build, and the increased contribution of private sector house building.
Before reading the paper, I had no idea what “horizontal equity” and “vertical equity” were. These terms were described in detail at the beginning of the paper and allowed me to more thoroughly understand the key points that the authors made. When explaining how certain parts of the Australian tax system function, the authors made analogies to compare the tax system in Australia to that of other countries, such as the United States. However, some words and terms that the authors used were not clearly defined in the text. Luckily, I have had experience with some of the vocabulary words that the author used, such as "tax burden” and "progressive income tax system". Although, When it came to terms like “marginal income tax”, I had to do further background research so that I could gain an in-depth understanding of what the authors were saying. The authors state, "at the end of 2012, the marginal income tax rate for a person on average weekly earnings had risen to 37%". This left me wondering what marginal income tax is, and why Australia’s marginal income tax had fluctuated so much; neither of these items were explained in the paper. I believe that an average reader, with very little tax or business knowledge, would be unfamiliar with a large majority of these terms. If I were the authors, I would more clearly define the terms that I commonly used throughout the
Last but not least, this policy brief suggests the government should remove the stamp duty – tax imposed on property purchases - for the first home buyer to enable their access to the housing market. Stamp duty often discourage people from buying and selling property. Thus, removing stamp duty would improve the supply of housing, as well as reducing a range of adverse impact on the housing market (The Treasury, 2009). Recently, the NSW Government has announced the decision to abolish the stamp duty for the properties worth up to $650,000 (targeting first home buyers) and it would save them up to $24,740 (NSW Government, 2017). This reform does bring a positive impact on housing affordability as it will help first home buyers to access the housing market at an affordable price in comparison to the past.
To evaluate the effect that right to buy scheme would have on the housing market
• Commissioner of State Revenue assessed the sale agreement to stamp duty of approximately 9 million on the basis that the majority of chattels sold were fixtures and fixtures are part of the land under the general law.
In Document 3, it has the “Table of Taxed Items and Amount of Tax” and it shows which items were being taxed (paper materials). Great Britain enacted the Stamp Act because they wanted a way to help pay off debt from the French and Indian war. The Americans believed that this was biased because the British put a tax
1) When it comes to investing in property, it is generally a huge decision to be made by Australian households. What are the important factors that a person needs to consider before going ahead with such purchase?
First of all, from 2008 to 2015, property prices of all capital cities in Australia have increased rapidly. People have had obsession with buying houses. At the same time,
Because of the French and Indian war the Stamp Act took place a couple of years later. This was a tax created so the tremendous war debt would be payed off.
Housing affordability is the relationship between household income and burden of housing costs and is an issue when it prevents population groups from accessing appropriate or secure housing. (3, 4) Australia has seen a severe escalation in rent and house prices that have not been matched by growth of household income. This decline in housing affordability is a result of economic growth, tax incentives for owners and investors, more accessible finance and population growths, which consequently result in an increased demand for housing. (3, 5) Moreover, this is further compounded by land and development limitations that restrict increases in housing
Housing affordability can be defined as the ability to access appropriate housing at tenure or price which is not a significant burden upon household income. (1, 2) Australia has seen a significant decline in housing affordability; average house prices have increased by 147% between 2001 and 2011. This was not matched by increases in income. (1) This decline can be attributed to economic growth, population growth, more accessible finance and incentives for owners and investors. These factors create an incentive to buy and store wealth in housing, resulting in overinvestment and house price inflation. (2, 3) Consequently, this results in depletion of affordable housing for low-income households and increases pressure on social housing stocks. (1, 4) Supply and demand has a significant effect on housing affordability. (1)
Macroeconomics is an excellent tool for the analysis of the housing industry as something like a capital good, as a home is considered to be, cannot easily be studied in a short-term platform. Real estate is a good that costs several times more than an average persons annual income, in the United States that number is typically 7 times as much, and in the United Kingdom that number is 14 times as much. Several factors of both supply and demand directly impact the housing market on a macroeconomic scale. (Business Economics, 1)
The objective of this report is to outline the reasons as to what of the difficulties facing Sydney’s property market and analyse how the relationship between demand and supply influence Sydney’s housing market. This report will also evaluate the recent and future trends in Epping housing market. The outcome of this report will be submitted to the local government in order to provide recommendations in ways to improve the Epping area housing market.
Recently, The Australian housing market has been growing rapidly which reflects the housing affordability crisis as the housing price rises much quickly than household incomes. There are two key observations of current Australian housing market from Yates, firstly today’s housing affordability problem is mainly a structural problem and intensified by cyclical pressures. It began 40 years ago when inflation switched focus on housing, besides, there are more renters than purchasers under today’s housing stress situation, and the housing