Page 3121 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 15 September 1993
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STAMP DUTIES AND TAXES (AMENDMENT) BILL (NO. 2) 1993
MS FOLLETT (Chief Minister and Treasurer) (3.47): Madam Speaker, I present the Stamp Duties and Taxes (Amendment) Bill (No. 2) of 1993.
Title read by Clerk.
MS FOLLETT: I move:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
Madam Speaker, this Bill proposes a number of amendments to the Stamp Duties and Taxes Act 1987 which were foreshadowed in my Government's 1993-94 budget. These proposals restrict the refund provisions in respect of duty paid on the conveyance of real property, introduce a $20 minimum duty on certain documents required to be lodged with the Commissioner for ACT Revenue, and enable the imposition of conveyance rates of duty on leases and subleases which exceed 15 years.
Madam Speaker, property speculation in the ACT is being facilitated by the refund provisions of the Act. Cases have come to the attention of the ACT Revenue Office where builders have agreed to purchase land from a developer and, when the builder subsequently finds a third party buyer for that property, the original agreement is rescinded. Until the third party buyer is found the original contract is binding and the builder has contractual obligations towards the developer. However, by rescinding the agreement once a buyer is found the builder is entitled to a refund of any stamp duty paid. The opportunity to avoid payment of stamp duty through the use of the refund provisions in this way was never intended.
The Bill therefore proposes a tightening of the refund provisions to require that the application for a refund of stamp duty must be made within 30 days from the date of assessment of duty. It is proposed that an extension of the 30-day limit will be given in the case of the purchase of property which is intended to be the principal place of residence of the buyer. This proposal will make it more difficult for the refund provisions of the Act to be used for speculating in the ACT property market. The restriction on refunds will not impact on ordinary home buyers who may encounter delays in acquiring finance after entering into an agreement to buy their home. To ensure that the ACT revenue base is fully protected, it is proposed that this measure be effective for transactions entered into from today.
Madam Speaker, currently documents which are exempt attract no fee or charge whatsoever. In other cases only a nominal duty is payable. In the 1992-93 financial year there were over 11,000 exempt documents processed relating to marketable securities alone. The result of this is that a considerable amount of resources is devoted to the processing of documents without any revenue receipt or cost recovery. To recoup part of the costs of processing documents which must be lodged under the Act, this Bill therefore proposes to impose a $20 minimum duty on exempt documents and documents where the primary stamp duty is less than $20.
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