The Property Council of Australia’s Queensland Division has released research providing eight years of evidence that Queenslands’s tax on international capital does not benefit Queenslanders.
‘Time for a fair go – How un-Australian taxes are hurting Queenslanders’ explores the impact of the Additional Foreign Acquirer Duty (AFAD) and Foreign Land Tax Surcharge (FLTS) on Queensland since its introduction in 2016.
The independent research conducted by QEAS shows that since 2016 these prohibitive taxes have resulted in:
- Queensland losing 32,872 new dwellings – with an estimated value of $17.8 billion
- Queensland’s budget missing out on $99.5 million in stamp duty and land tax including $16.3 million in the 2023-24 Queensland Budget
- between 23,129 and 37,972 Queensland jobs being lost
- an 83.9 per cent drop in foreign dwelling approvals (from 5,220 in 2015-16 to just 839 in 2022-23).
Off the back of the Property Council’s advocacy earlier in the year, the government announced a post-election review of Queensland’s property.
However, this announcement does not go far enough. There has been no clarity or engagement with industry as to the details of this review and with 12 new or increased taxes on property introduced by the Queensland Government since 2016 we are calling on both political parties to commit to a review that will:
- Be conducted independently of Treasury and chaired by an independent tax expert
- Include appropriate peak bodies in setting the Terms of Reference and;
- Include a commitment to no new or increased taxes or charges across the entire property sector.
