The Property Tax (First Home Buyer Choice) Bill 2022 (NSW) has passed all stages without amendment and received assent on 11 November 2022 as Act No 60 of 2022. The Bill implements the First Home Buyer Choice scheme to give eligible first home buyers the choice of a smaller annual property tax payment over a traditional upfront payment for properties with a purchase price of up to $1.5 million ($800,000 for vacant land).
The NSW Premier, Dominic Perrottet, said eligible first home buyers can access the scheme from 12 November 2022.
- These buyers are required to pay stamp duty on purchases made until 15 January 2023, but will be able to apply for a refund of their stamp duty if they choose to opt into the annual fee.
- From 16 January 2023, purchasers can opt-in directly.
- For owner-occupiers, the initial property tax rate is $400, plus 0.3% of the land value.
- If a dwelling is rented out, the initial investor rate is $1,500, plus 1.1% of the land value.
[EDITORIAL COMMENT – hated as upfront transfer duty is (an additional 5% deposit), so too, is land tax – and this becomes a land tax. Previous proposals, to swap transfer duty, for higher land tax, have not found favour. It will be interesting to see how this proposal goes. Perhaps ‘first home owners’ will be happy with it, if they have a short enough, typical ownership period (on their first house) to have ended up paying less, overall.]
[Tax Month – November 2022 – Previous Month, 12.11.22]