Land tax deferral: a disgrace in Victoria

I try and stay out of politics, but cannot help myself with this issue.

There is a lot in the news about tenants not being able to pay rent and landlords struggling as a result. The Prime Minister has said that we all need to work together on this, and I see this working in some cases.

There are a lot of issues on this, but one I would like to touch on is the deferral of land tax on non-residential properties, with a taxable value of less than $1 million.

These days, the property would have to be the size of a postage stamp to have this value anywhere near a major town or city.

Further, it is not a waiver of the tax, but rather a deferral of the tax until next year. You still have to pay it.

Take a café as an example, once they get through this crisis, there will be a bit of an increase but people are not going to go in and order ten meals for the ones that they may have missed, to make up for it. That revenue is lost to the business owner.

For government to load up already struggling businesses with debt, is not the solution if we want businesses to hibernate.

It would be better to have those businesses and landlords unaffected to pay as normal, but businesses and landlords affected pay less tax, based on the drop in rental income.

That way we are all working together and we give every one a chance to come out of this, with a viable business moving forward.

Below, are the current rules in Victoria kindly articulated by Gorman & Kelly Commercial Property Management Pty Ltd, for which I thank them.