CORONAVIRUS — LAND TAX
438. Hon PETER COLLIER to
the minister representing the Minister for Finance:
I ask this question on behalf of Hon
Dr Steve Thomas.
I refer to the government's
COVID-19 economic response since the Treasurer's media statement of
Monday, 11 May 2020, entitled ''Land tax exemption to assist home owners
in full-time care''.
(1) For the
financial years 2016–17, 2017–18 and 2018–19 how many Western
Australian home owners were moved from their principal place of residence into
full-time institutionalised care?
(2) In applying
this policy for the financial years 2020–21, 2021–22 and 2022–23,
what is the anticipated forgone land tax revenue expected to be for each
financial year?
(3) If a person
is able to return to their home after an extended period of full-time care,
will they be required to pay land tax for the period of time that they were in
full-time care?
(4) What
modelling has Treasury undertaken on the government's land tax
exemption to assist home owners in full-time care and will the minister table
the relevant modelling?
(5) If no to (4), why not?
Hon
STEPHEN DAWSON replied:
I thank Hon Dr Steve Thomas for some
notice of the question.
(1)–(2) The Department of Finance's state revenue
does not have data about how many Western Australian home owners move
into full-time care each financial year. State revenue investigations
identified around three cases since 2016–17 when a residential
exemption was removed from a home because the owner had moved into care. In
each case land tax of less than $2 000 applied after the exemption was removed.
Despite the low number of identified cases, the government considered it was
unfair for people to pay land tax when they could no longer live in their homes
because they had moved into full-time care and the home is not rented out.
(3) Land tax is not required to be
repaid if a person is able to move back home after being in care.
(4)–(5) Given
the low number of cases, modelling was not undertaken to estimate the annual
revenue forgone as a result of introducing this exemption.