FARMERS who live close to country towns are concerned that their financial plans will be destroyed by the new windfall gains tax, according to Murray Plains MP Peter Walsh.
“These are not rich Melbourne property developers who may have had lunch or dinner with the Premier at the Flower Drum,” Mr Walsh told Parliament last week.
“They are ordinary, hardworking families who have worked all their lives to build up an asset that the Andrews government now wants to snatch away from them.
“They cannot get straight answers from the State Revenue Office as to whether they will be in or whether they will be out.
“They are getting conflicting advice from their accountants as to what it will mean for them when it is triggered in their particular area.”
From July 1, 2023, a windfall gains tax will apply to land that is subject to a government rezoning resulting in a value uplift to the land of more than $100,000.
A rezoning is an amendment of a planning scheme that causes land to be in a different zone from the zone that it was in immediately before the amendment. The taxable value uplift is the difference in the capital improved value (CIV) of the land before and after the rezoning takes effect, less any deductions.
The Valuer-General Victoria will be responsible for determining the value of the land before and after a rezoning. These valuations will be based on the CIV of the relevant land.
Mr Walsh said it was an “unashamed grab for their savings to pay for the government’s cost overruns on Melbourne infrastructure projects”.
“(Farmers) are very firmly of the view that they should not have their life savings snatched away by the Andrews government to pay for these cost overruns,” he said.
“They want to see the whole process around this new housing tax re-examined so their lifetime savings are not taken away.”
