BOYCOTT STAMP DUTY ON PROPERTY PURCHASES

Stamp duty is REGRESSIVE. For first home buyers, it's an up-front tax on top of an already exorbitant price, forcing buyers to borrow more and pay more interest. For both buyers and renters, it impedes all the property transfers needed to bring new housing to market, reducing supply and forcing up prices and rents. It discriminates against working people who need to move frequently due to unstable employment: the more often they sell and re-buy, the more tax they pay. But it favours rich investors who can afford to hold property for long periods: they pay no duty as long as they simply retain their portfolios.

Stamp duty is INEFFICIENT. It impedes the transactions that bring property into the hands of those who can use it best, and impedes the movement of people to places where they can be most gainfully employed.

Fortunately, stamp duty is also largely VOLUNTARY...

More: http://is.gd/psd_strike .

While I agree that stamp duty is a crippling tax, the reality is that it is a necessary evil, required to top up the public purse.

Now as long as we continue to allow all those hand outs to continue, along with absurd amounts of waste and mismanagement from governments, the reality is taxes like stamp duty are here to stay.

In fact, I suggest we brace ourselves, as taxes simply have to increase because governments seem disinterested in attacking the real issues that are a drain on the public purse.

Or you could buy a house worth less than 500,000 dollars. No stamp duty there.

Good luck with that!

Try transferring the property without paying it.

Well, SM, in the topic it says,

'For *first home buyers*'

It only applies to houses worth more than half a million. Discounts continue until 600,000. Very generous.

You're going to pay either way. If there was no stamp duty, there would be even more speed cameras, or developers would be lumped with the all the costs of making new houses that need sewage/water/stormwater/Electricity/transport infrastructure, and all new homes in the boondocks would cost 1 Million when developers pass it on.

Shadow Minister: Had you actually clicked on the link, you would have seen that I'm actually suggesting NOT transferring the property.