Page 1021 - Week 03 - Thursday, 21 March 2019
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whether or not to impose penalty tax, the Commissioner for ACT Revenue will have regard to whether a taxpayer has taken reasonable care to comply with the relevant tax laws.
Other amendments in the bill address an earlier omission to exempt the surrender and re-grant of University of Canberra declared subleases from duty where there is no change in beneficial ownership. This change will provide certainty to transacting parties and a duty exemption will apply to declared land subleases on University of Canberra land. That ensures that University of Canberra subleases are treated consistently with other crown leases in the ACT.
The bill makes a range of other modifications, including to limit the ability of third parties to apply for a rates, land tax or other taxes certificate, to protect the privacy of property owners; to facilitate the disclosure of information by tax officers where there are serious threats to the life of individuals, public health and safety; and to update and correct minor description errors and improve consistency in the application of tax laws.
Members in this place will also be aware that the government has recently been working through some unintended consequences arising from an earlier revenue amendment bill. We are aware that the government’s measures to extend the land tax to vacant properties in order to incentivise these being made available for rent has resulted in some people who are buying off the plan properties being issued with land tax assessments for the quarter in which they take possession of their property. This is clearly not the intent of the vacant property policy, and the government is now working to address this. We are looking closely at the circumstances of individual owners to ensure that we identify and respond to all the situations where any unintended tax debt may currently be arising. It is our intention to bring forward the legislative amendments necessary to deal with this situation as soon as possible.
In the meantime, the ACT revenue office and treasury officials are working through the various circumstances that have arisen and, where appropriate, waivers will of course be applied, as I have publicly announced.
It is essential that from time to time regular adjustments are made to update and improve upon the territory’s revenue system to address changes and developments that are needed in light of our city’s growth and development. That is what this bill does. Doing this today is important, and I do note comments from the shadow planning minister that we should have got on with this earlier. I am not sure that he was aware that the Leader of the Opposition approached me, as the debate began, to say we should refer the whole bill to a committee and delay this action that he has just criticised me for not doing quickly enough—to delay it longer. The first time that the Leader of the Opposition raised this with me was about 30 minutes ago. I have said no; I think we should debate and pass this legislation this afternoon.
I look forward to your support on that element, at least, Mr Parton, and I thank you for that. I do want it known that the Leader of the Opposition wanted to defer the whole thing.
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