Government ‘addiction’ to property tax is crushing builders and housing supply

Builders are struggling as taxes and high costs bite hard. ANALYSIS The building industry is in dire straits. Reports this week have varied, but in NSW alone, it’s been revealed 1500 construction firms have gone bust in the last financial year. Nationally, there have been more than 7700 developers go under in the past two years. We need these failing businesses to survive and thrive, because they are the only ones that can build our way out of our worsening housing crisis. And unfortunately, our governments are only making things harder for them, by taxing them, and their potential customers, to their eyeballs. MORE:Man loses $650k as builder rips up all sales There’s GST, developer contributions, windfall gains tax and betterment levies. There’s stamp duty, capital gains tax, foreign investor surcharges, land tax, council rates, income tax on rental revenue and even absence or vacancy taxes. Bathla Group’s future is in the balance as thousands of construction firms shut down. Labor also wants to tax trusts at a minimum of 30 per cent, which the building industry claims would affect family-owned and mid tier developers further. Governments are addicted to property tax. It doesn’t j...